Lowering the environmental footprint of recent information centre tasks has shot up the precedence record for development managers within the UK and Eire, in line with new analysis from Aggreko.
The corporate surveyed 495 information centre development managers throughout Europe, together with 104 respondents engaged on tasks within the UK and Eire. Virtually one in three managers lively in Britain, and greater than two in 5 in Eire, ranked reducing their challenge’s environmental impression as a prime concern – a determine that dwarfs many conventional complications resembling programme overruns or supply-chain delays.
73% of British respondents – and a hanging 96% of these in Eire – mentioned sustainability now issues greater than it did three years in the past. Though driving that change seems to be laws within the UK, whereas Irish managers are extra motivated by their must decrease carbon emissions – particularly given the widespread backlash information centres in Eire have had from most people lately, together with a excessive profile protest by local weather campaigners at DataCentres Eire final yr.
Regardless of sustainability’s rising significance, two-thirds of UK respondents and four-fifths of their Irish counterparts admitted that “data of laws at senior ranges will not be all the time carried out on website”, elevating the spectre of future non-compliance.

What development managers need probably the most
Battery vitality storage techniques emerged because the front-runner when it got here to probably the most wishlisted merchandise for future UK deployments, whereas Irish managers favoured various fuels resembling hydrogen or biomethanol. But enthusiasm collides with exhausting economics: 48% of British respondents and 42% of Irish respondents pointed to excessive capital prices as the one largest barrier, with 1 / 4 in each markets additionally highlighting poor biofuel availability.
These challenges are unfolding in opposition to an already stretched growth pipeline. Property adviser Savills lately warned that deliberate European capability should virtually double-and-a-half by the tip of 2025 merely to maintain tempo with surging demand for cloud, AI and high-performance computing.
Billy Durie, International Sector Head for Knowledge Centres at Aggreko, famous, “It’s not a shock to us that information centre development managers are discovering it tough to battle the challenges dealing with the business. Mixed with mounting stress for extra information centre area, evidently we’re at present working in an ideal storm.
“For information centre development managers lively within the UK and Eire, it’s critical they work along with a trusted and dependable vitality provider that understands the business’s challenges. At Aggreko, we all know that it’s not so simple as taking the plunge on greener upgrades; there are numerous obstacles that should be navigated, and managers want flexibility on their facet to have the ability to reply to no matter challenges are thrown their method.
“We all know, and our survey has proven, that it’s not for a scarcity of wanting that information centre development managers are unable to satisfy sustainability targets as rapidly or effectively as they want. By supporting the business, we are able to work collectively to deal with many of those points concurrently by way of non permanent energy storage and provision options.”
