Category: Articles

Is there a skills shortage or are we not looking hard enough?

Yes, there is a skills shortage. Whether you are talking about the construction, engineering, or IT element of the data centre sector there is definitely a skills shortage. In a recent survey (see below) by Business Critical Solutions 90% of respondents anticipate a decline in the supply of staff and 70% believe that this decline will be accompanies by a rise in demand.

https://www.bcs.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/77975-IX-Consulting-Data-Centre-Report_SUMMER-2021-screen.pdf

But this skills shortage is not specific to the data centre sector. According to government research in the UK 186000 skilled engineers are needed annually until 2024 to plug the gap (this will never be achieved!) and almost 20% of the current workforce are due to retire by 2024.

So, when you have a shortage across all associated sectors where do you look for staff? And how do you manage the problem?

There is obviously no defined answer to the questions, but a number of elements that you can implement to manage the solution.

Lets address the elephants in the room…

Not everyone can transfer to the data centre sector.

It is not simply a big shed full of M&E services. Data Centres are complex facilities that are designed and built at the cutting edge of engineering. They are built at pace and the clients are demanding. You need to have certain skills to be successful in the sector. Sometimes the role is urgent and data centre experience is simply essential for the role, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Not all clients are flexible enough in their approach.

Are you recruiting or skills or are you recruiting for attributes? Do you need someone with 5 years data centre experience, or can you consider someone with 2? Can you look at someone from a similar critical engineering sector? Is it essential they have data centre experience?

What can you do?

Candidates that want to work in the sector need to highlight their relevant experience when applying for roles. You need to reach out to those in the sector for advice and guidance. You need to read about the industry, attend events, immerse yourself in the sector. The right attitude can take you a long way.

Organisations need to adapt the recruitment process. Are your job descriptions/adverts too specific to the data centre sector? Are your interviews skills based or focussed on attributes? Do you have a diverse interview panel? Are you looking for skills in other sectors? Do you have an internal training programme to educate people about the sector? Have you established an entry level training and education scheme? Do you have a unique proposition?

So what is the answer to the question?

The answer is yes there is a skills shortage and yes there is a shortage of people looking outside of the sector for skills. You cant solve one without the other, as always a challenge is better solved with collaboration.

The long term solution is investing in training and development, and increasing the exposure of the sector so that data centres is seen as a career of choice.

The short term solution is being agile and adaptable. Look for great people and find them a role, don’t simply look for people that match a job description as it is very likely you will never find them.

And collaborate as an industry to come up with long term solutions…

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

We are excited to announce the launch of DataX Connect! Over the last 14 years, Highfield has achieved some incredible milestones and accomplishments within the Technical Engineering and Construction recruitment market and we continue to do so. However, in response to the Data Centre sector rapidly expanding. We recognised that there was an opportunity to ensure that our overall positioning in the data centre sector needed to be more specialized. It is an opportunity for us to work uniquely within the sector and in turn ensure we provide an exceptional service to both clients and candidates. Subsequently, through thorough communication within our company we decided to rebrand our Data Centre team as DataX Connect.

Why now?

The success of the industry has provided opportunities across hundreds of countries, including the UK. The forecast growth rate is 17% annually and in 2019 $170bn was spent on the industry. It is providing countless employment opportunities across the world, and we plan to work with leading data centre organisations and connect them with the best talent in the industry. We understand the challenges faced when recruiting talent, retaining staff, and job seeking in the data centre market. We offer much more than simply a recruitment service.

Despite the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought, the move to digitization has accelerated, stimulating investment in building data centres across the world. For us, we saw this as an opportunity to be innovative and a chance to position DataX Connect as a global data centre recruitment specialist.

Why change from Highfield Professional Solutions?

The rebranding process was carried out with the intention to communicate clearly exactly what we do in the sector. At Highfield, we have had a great success with securing leading clients. We want to build upon our strong, trusted relationships with our clients and candidates and provide an even better service that adds real value to their recruitment process.

Becoming a specialist in the sector and operating in specific markets, our knowledge and experience ensures that we find the best possible solutions for clients and candidates. We work globally to connect employers and professionals together. To do this effectively, our rebranding process has enabled us to create bespoke recruitment solutions that are flexible, agile and adaptive to your needs.

New website & Logo

The design of the new website will allow our current and perspective clients and candidates to find useful information about the markets we work in as well as the recruitment solutions we offer.

Additionally, we built the website with the thought in mind that we wanted to provide as much value to people within the sector, as well as promoting the industry as best we can. We did this by creating a Media page which informs you on everything you need to know about Data Centres including: the history, growth forecast, challenges, finding vacancies, perks and opportunities as well as videos introducing our team members. Not to mention, we have blog content, an industry newsletter and a weekly ‘Inside Data Centre Podcast’ created by our Director, Andy Davis. He interviews people in the data centre sector and discusses their career, as well as what advice they can share with anyone looking to work in the sector. The response and feedback has been incredible, click here for his latest episode with Matt Gurr.

Our goals

The outcome of the rebrand is to become a global market leader in data centre recruitment. The new logo and website helps us to showcase our expertise and dedication to providing the best service to our clients and candidates. For us the opportunities will be endless. By becoming a niche brand we can create more opportunities for not only our staff, but for people around the world.

We are excited to announce the launch of DataX Connect! Over the last 14 years, Highfield has achieved some incredible milestones and accomplishments within the Technical Engineering and Construction recruitment market and we continue to do so. However, in response to the Data Centre sector rapidly expanding. We recognised that there was an opportunity to ensure that our overall positioning in the data centre sector needed to be more specialized. It is an opportunity for us to work uniquely within the sector and in turn ensure we provide an exceptional service to both clients and candidates. Subsequently, through thorough communication within our company we decided to rebrand our Data Centre team as DataX Connect.

Why now?

The success of the industry has provided opportunities across hundreds of countries, including the UK. The forecast growth rate is 17% annually and in 2019 $170bn was spent on the industry. It is providing countless employment opportunities across the world, and we plan to work with leading data centre organisations and connect them with the best talent in the industry. We understand the challenges faced when recruiting talent, retaining staff, and job seeking in the data centre market. We offer much more than simply a recruitment service.

Despite the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought, the move to digitization has accelerated, stimulating investment in building data centres across the world. For us, we saw this as an opportunity to be innovative and a chance to position DataX Connect as a global data centre recruitment specialist.

Why change from Highfield Professional Solutions?

The rebranding process was carried out with the intention to communicate clearly exactly what we do in the sector. At Highfield, we have had a great success with securing leading clients. We want to build upon our strong, trusted relationships with our clients and candidates and provide an even better service that adds real value to their recruitment process.

Becoming a specialist in the sector and operating in specific markets, our knowledge and experience ensures that we find the best possible solutions for clients and candidates. We work globally to connect employers and professionals together. To do this effectively, our rebranding process has enabled us to create bespoke recruitment solutions that are flexible, agile and adaptive to your needs.

New website & Logo

The design of the new website will allow our current and perspective clients and candidates to find useful information about the markets we work in as well as the recruitment solutions we offer.

Additionally, we built the website with the thought in mind that we wanted to provide as much value to people within the sector, as well as promoting the industry as best we can. We did this by creating a Media page which informs you on everything you need to know about Data Centres including: the history, growth forecast, challenges, finding vacancies, perks and opportunities as well as videos introducing our team members. Not to mention, we have blog content, an industry newsletter and a weekly ‘Inside Data Centre Podcast’ created by our Director, Andy Davis. He interviews people in the data centre sector and discusses their career, as well as what advice they can share with anyone looking to work in the sector. The response and feedback has been incredible, click here for his latest episode with Matt Gurr.

Our goals

The outcome of the rebrand is to become a global market leader in data centre recruitment. The new logo and website helps us to showcase our expertise and dedication to providing the best service to our clients and candidates. For us the opportunities will be endless. By becoming a niche brand we can create more opportunities for not only our staff, but for people around the world.

Even though data centre staff are deemed as ‘critical workers’ – footfall traffic at the sites has been scaled down massively. As it stands, most facilities have enough tools and ‘remote hands’ services in place to allow their customers to manage and monitor their infrastructure remotely.

Being Prepared

In response to the pandemic, we have found that organizations have fallen into three camps; those who can quickly adapt and who are geared up for remote working; those who feel unprepared for the change; and, of course, many who simply can’t comply, including care workers, hospital staff and those that work in providing crucial data infrastructure, such as data centres.

Nevertheless, whatever camp they fall into, it is essential and necessary to remain productive and profitable, even when staff are not physically in the building.

Staff Meetings Go Virtual

Chief Revenue Officer from a North Carolina-based colocation provider, Patrick Doherty says that all staff that are non-essential are now working from home. For meetings, they are using video conferences, as well as one-on-ones to make sure employees feel connected.

However, for sales staff it has been more challenging, as they would normally visit potential customers along with data centre tours. Although, Doherty quotes that they have adapted and instead, created virtual video tours. Current and potential customers can see inside, at the same level of detail as they would during a physical walk through. Despite the crisis, he says, there is still a demand for tours.

Remote Data Centre Management Tools

For colocation providers, experts say they are generally in good shape – this is because the providers previously had systems in place for remote monitoring and teach support requests. To meet customer needs, they are using online data centre infrastructure management customer portals for remote monitoring and IT support according to a report by Uptime Institute.

Promotion of colocation’s remote-hand services – these cover IT equipment moves and additions, changes and maintenance, troubleshooting of power, IT, router, firewall, and shipping and receiving on customers.

Equinix

On March 23rd Equinix closed its data centres in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Following the COVID-19 protection measures, they have said that all visitors, customers, customer contractors and non-critical Equinix vendors will not be permitted to enter the IBX facilities.

The decision to restrict data centre access was said to be “made in accordance with our business continuity plans to minimize the risk of impact within our data centres while maximizing our ability to operate and maintain our services on behalf of our customers”.

Additionally, Equinix have stated that “In the event a complete lockdown is required, Equinix is prepared to maintain the necessary on-site staffing levels required to support continuous operations”. Measures have been taken whereby no more than five people per party are welcomed – everything visitors touch are frequently swabbed with various destroying liquids.

The company’s optimum goal is to make sure facilities do not become infected and their employees are healthy.

Complete Remote Automation

Andrew Bishop CEO of Nuco Technologies runs automated data centres in the UK that can be remotely controlled right down to the door locks. Amidst the coronavirus, he is keen to promote the benefits of this type of operation.

One of the company’s Tier 4 data centres in Milton Keynes is completely remotely run, with staff operators using an IP phone accessible from the main switchboard. Any customers that need to visit their racks are carefully tracked, he says “We can just activate a fob and they can access the data centre. Our systems track them through the centre and when they leave, we expire it.

For the few staff that are working within the facility, they have to implement a new cleaning regime, for example, if someone accesses the data centre, the workers will then have to clean all of the door handles and surfaces to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

Scalability Boosts Cloud Platforms

As the crisis has placed a premium on speed and scalability (according to 451 Research), for some requirement, cloud platforms will become more attractive. As a result of the virus, we can expect some web applications to dramatically increase with traffic, while others might dwindle to near nothing. For this changing demand, scalable cloud applications should be able to grow shrink dependant on the demand. For those who are in the suffering from lower hits, the scale down can save them cash. However, for those experiencing surge, the cloud lets websites continue to perform under pressure.

The COVID-19 crisis will eventually subside, though, it’s impact will be with the industry for some time. Sami Badri, senior equity analyst at credit Suisse says “virtual connectivity is a must. It’s no longer a debate. It’s now a case of survival, relevance and productivity. You’re starting to see permanent shifts”.

Future Workforce

Existing experiences have shown us that those who were early adaptors of virtual run businesses, or encourage remote working, are the ones reaping the benefits. Coronavirus has undoubtedly changed people’s attitudes and behaviours. The Data centre strategy, will after this, become even more critical in ensuring the infrastructure is powerful, safe and reliable for people to work wherever they want, whenever they want.

What’s Next?

The industry is trying to work out new ways in dealing with the pandemic as lockdown is not sustainable for the industry. Whilst data centres such as 4D Data Centres have 85% of their staff working from home. There are only few going in to keep the data centres open and to make sure all the facilities are kept running – but it’s really the bare minimum.

Many data centre operators have confirmed that remote working methods will continue even when the crisis has passed. Customers have been stopped from making any visits to their computer systems in their data centre unless urgent.

Allan Bosley, information managers at Ark Data Centres, said ‘We are still understanding the impact”. He goes on to say “It would be very difficult to make decisions about the medium and longer terms.’

Even though data centre staff are deemed as ‘critical workers’ – footfall traffic at the sites has been scaled down massively. As it stands, most facilities have enough tools and ‘remote hands’ services in place to allow their customers to manage and monitor their infrastructure remotely.

Being Prepared

In response to the pandemic, we have found that organizations have fallen into three camps; those who can quickly adapt and who are geared up for remote working; those who feel unprepared for the change; and, of course, many who simply can’t comply, including care workers, hospital staff and those that work in providing crucial data infrastructure, such as data centres.

Nevertheless, whatever camp they fall into, it is essential and necessary to remain productive and profitable, even when staff are not physically in the building.

Staff Meetings Go Virtual

Chief Revenue Officer from a North Carolina-based colocation provider, Patrick Doherty says that all staff that are non-essential are now working from home. For meetings, they are using video conferences, as well as one-on-ones to make sure employees feel connected.

However, for sales staff it has been more challenging, as they would normally visit potential customers along with data centre tours. Although, Doherty quotes that they have adapted and instead, created virtual video tours. Current and potential customers can see inside, at the same level of detail as they would during a physical walk through. Despite the crisis, he says, there is still a demand for tours.

Remote Data Centre Management Tools

For colocation providers, experts say they are generally in good shape – this is because the providers previously had systems in place for remote monitoring and teach support requests. To meet customer needs, they are using online data centre infrastructure management customer portals for remote monitoring and IT support according to a report by Uptime Institute.

Promotion of colocation’s remote-hand services – these cover IT equipment moves and additions, changes and maintenance, troubleshooting of power, IT, router, firewall, and shipping and receiving on customers.

Equinix

On March 23rd Equinix closed its data centres in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Following the COVID-19 protection measures, they have said that all visitors, customers, customer contractors and non-critical Equinix vendors will not be permitted to enter the IBX facilities.

The decision to restrict data centre access was said to be “made in accordance with our business continuity plans to minimize the risk of impact within our data centres while maximizing our ability to operate and maintain our services on behalf of our customers”.

Additionally, Equinix have stated that “In the event a complete lockdown is required, Equinix is prepared to maintain the necessary on-site staffing levels required to support continuous operations”. Measures have been taken whereby no more than five people per party are welcomed – everything visitors touch are frequently swabbed with various destroying liquids.

The company’s optimum goal is to make sure facilities do not become infected and their employees are healthy.

Complete Remote Automation

Andrew Bishop CEO of Nuco Technologies runs automated data centres in the UK that can be remotely controlled right down to the door locks. Amidst the coronavirus, he is keen to promote the benefits of this type of operation.

One of the company’s Tier 4 data centres in Milton Keynes is completely remotely run, with staff operators using an IP phone accessible from the main switchboard. Any customers that need to visit their racks are carefully tracked, he says “We can just activate a fob and they can access the data centre. Our systems track them through the centre and when they leave, we expire it.

For the few staff that are working within the facility, they have to implement a new cleaning regime, for example, if someone accesses the data centre, the workers will then have to clean all of the door handles and surfaces to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

Scalability Boosts Cloud Platforms

As the crisis has placed a premium on speed and scalability (according to 451 Research), for some requirement, cloud platforms will become more attractive. As a result of the virus, we can expect some web applications to dramatically increase with traffic, while others might dwindle to near nothing. For this changing demand, scalable cloud applications should be able to grow shrink dependant on the demand. For those who are in the suffering from lower hits, the scale down can save them cash. However, for those experiencing surge, the cloud lets websites continue to perform under pressure.

The COVID-19 crisis will eventually subside, though, it’s impact will be with the industry for some time. Sami Badri, senior equity analyst at credit Suisse says “virtual connectivity is a must. It’s no longer a debate. It’s now a case of survival, relevance and productivity. You’re starting to see permanent shifts”.

Future Workforce

Existing experiences have shown us that those who were early adaptors of virtual run businesses, or encourage remote working, are the ones reaping the benefits. Coronavirus has undoubtedly changed people’s attitudes and behaviours. The Data centre strategy, will after this, become even more critical in ensuring the infrastructure is powerful, safe and reliable for people to work wherever they want, whenever they want.

What’s Next?

The industry is trying to work out new ways in dealing with the pandemic as lockdown is not sustainable for the industry. Whilst data centres such as 4D Data Centres have 85% of their staff working from home. There are only few going in to keep the data centres open and to make sure all the facilities are kept running – but it’s really the bare minimum.

Many data centre operators have confirmed that remote working methods will continue even when the crisis has passed. Customers have been stopped from making any visits to their computer systems in their data centre unless urgent.

Allan Bosley, information managers at Ark Data Centres, said ‘We are still understanding the impact”. He goes on to say “It would be very difficult to make decisions about the medium and longer terms.’

It has been another busy 12 months in the world of data centres and I don’t expect the next 12 months to be any different. We have seen all the major organisations expanding their footprint across the globe, and in some different locations away from the normal hubs. Data usage and demand continues to rise so there is no reason for this global expansion to reduce in the next few years.

Talking to those in my network it is clear that the industry has three major issues to overcome in the coming years: Efficiency, Sustainability and managing power demand.

Efficiency – A recent uptime institute survey found that 2019’s average PUE is 1.67 and that efficiency has flat lined over the last two years. Google has been working on this key challenge and has come up with some new solutions, largely based around machine learning and AI. They have now developed an AI system that directly cools data centres under human supervision. Advances like this will have a dramatic effect on efficiency and it is no doubt that AI will be a game changer.

For those organisations constructing new data centres it is now essential that the design and architecture of the facility is created in a way that can ensure efficiency advances can be installed and managed with very little disruption.

Sustainability – The industry has made great strides in recent times to utilise sustainable energy where it is available. Recently we have seen Facebook announce they will supply the Newton County data centre with 100% renewable energy (solar), and AWS announce investment in renewable energy projects in the US and Spain. Advances in technology will only lead to more investment in sustainable solutions.

Power demand – Data centres are thought to be responsible for 3% of global energy, and a large number of these are based in hubs which causes major demands on the localised power. Amsterdam made a big move earlier this year where it announced that data centre construction was under review while they work towards the development of a sustainable plan. Only this past weekend Equinix have stated that the major problem facing Dublin is ‘access to power’. Those regions that can manage this power demand issue are likely to see the largest investment in new facilities.

The location of the new build facilities is going to be key and I expect a significant increase in developments in the regions that are able to offer the most sustainable and efficient methods of providing energy, especially from the major cloud providers.

With all the above and the implementation of 5G and the rise in Edge demand it is in no doubt that 2020 is going to be another exciting and busy year in the data centre sector. Construction companies, maintenance providers, and the end-users will all have to adapt to ensure they remain ahead of the completion… Interesting times ahead!
Let’s see what 2020 brings!

It has been another busy 12 months in the world of data centres and I don’t expect the next 12 months to be any different. We have seen all the major organisations expanding their footprint across the globe, and in some different locations away from the normal hubs. Data usage and demand continues to rise so there is no reason for this global expansion to reduce in the next few years.

Talking to those in my network it is clear that the industry has three major issues to overcome in the coming years: Efficiency, Sustainability and managing power demand.

Efficiency – A recent uptime institute survey found that 2019’s average PUE is 1.67 and that efficiency has flat lined over the last two years. Google has been working on this key challenge and has come up with some new solutions, largely based around machine learning and AI. They have now developed an AI system that directly cools data centres under human supervision. Advances like this will have a dramatic effect on efficiency and it is no doubt that AI will be a game changer.

For those organisations constructing new data centres it is now essential that the design and architecture of the facility is created in a way that can ensure efficiency advances can be installed and managed with very little disruption.

Sustainability – The industry has made great strides in recent times to utilise sustainable energy where it is available. Recently we have seen Facebook announce they will supply the Newton County data centre with 100% renewable energy (solar), and AWS announce investment in renewable energy projects in the US and Spain. Advances in technology will only lead to more investment in sustainable solutions.

Power demand – Data centres are thought to be responsible for 3% of global energy, and a large number of these are based in hubs which causes major demands on the localised power. Amsterdam made a big move earlier this year where it announced that data centre construction was under review while they work towards the development of a sustainable plan. Only this past weekend Equinix have stated that the major problem facing Dublin is ‘access to power’. Those regions that can manage this power demand issue are likely to see the largest investment in new facilities.

The location of the new build facilities is going to be key and I expect a significant increase in developments in the regions that are able to offer the most sustainable and efficient methods of providing energy, especially from the major cloud providers.

With all the above and the implementation of 5G and the rise in Edge demand it is in no doubt that 2020 is going to be another exciting and busy year in the data centre sector. Construction companies, maintenance providers, and the end-users will all have to adapt to ensure they remain ahead of the completion… Interesting times ahead!
Let’s see what 2020 brings!

The data centre boom is not showing any signs of slowing down and over the last 6 weeks I have noticed an unprecedented amount of projects being announced or commencing construction. We are seeing a mixture of projects from the major hyperscale developments to refit and refurbishments of the localisation data centres. There doesn’t seem to be many countries in Europe that don’t currently have a data centre under construction or in the final stages of planning with live projects in London, Dublin, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, etc etc.

I first recruited for the data centre sector in 2006 during the financial boom (yes I am that old!) and I have always found it difficult to predict how the sector will evolve in the coming 12-18 months but I think we can all be confident that the sector will continue to see unprecedented growth across the globe.

Below is a snapshot of some of the recent project news;

I am currently working with our in house marketing team on a number of reports around the current challenges within the data centre sector. The issues that continue to be discussed mainly revolve around the skills shortage and what needs to be done to attract more engineers into the industry. This is obviously correct and we are seeing major advances in the education and training within the sector, all of which will hopefully help to ease the skill shortage in the long term.
But is the issue right now more of an image problem?
Data centres should be ‘cool’ but they are in fact the unknown… How many people don’t even know what a data centre is? How many people don’t know why they exist? The majority of people have no idea where they are and wouldn’t know one if they walked into it… (Which is possible as they rarely have clearly defined doors!).
In May this year Data Economy published an interview with Tony Jacob (VP Design & Construction EMEA – Digital Realty) and Paul Cossell (CEO ISG) titled ‘The silent $45bn Industry you should know more about.’. The headline itself tells you all you need to know.. The industry is HUGE, yet perceived as a kind of sleeping giant. The sector has fallen behind the likes of energy, renewable’s and infrastructure, largely as a result of the media presence of these industries and the global push for renewable energy and reduced carbon emissions. Nobody is talking about how the new data centres under construction are working towards 100% renewable energy and that the data centre sector is ahead of the game with utilising renewable energies and reducing carbon footprint.
Darren Watkins (MD) of Virtus recently produced an interesting document on ‘Future proofing the work-force’ and he ended his report by stating that the industry needs to ‘build the awareness of the sector’.

In my opinion the times are changing and data centres are now becoming more of a talking point within engineering and construction, but equally the industry still needs to work harder to bring the sector to the forefront of the engineering and construction industry. Evolution within the design of data centres will help to bring the projects to the fore, it will help defend the argument that data centres are basically big sheds full of computers..

What can be done? I guess it is up to people like myself and those that work within the industry to do what they can to spread the awareness of the opportunities that exist within the sector. Speak to the engineers and project managers in other sectors and advise them why they should consider opportunities in the data centre sector.
We all need to shout louder about the sector and tell everyone what a diverse industry it is and what an array of opportunities are on offer…

As a business we work with some of leading clients in the data centre industry and I am having a lot of positive conversations about forward project pipelines and new facilities going live in the coming months.

Our data centre team is as busy as ever and has a number of excellent opportunities within the construction phase of data centres, and also the ongoing FM and maintenance sector for existing and new facilities.

Please get in contact if you are interested in discussing new opportunities or if you are a client looking to partner with a specialist recruitment company that really understands the data centre and high technology sectors.

The data centre boom is not showing any signs of slowing down and over the last 6 weeks I have noticed an unprecedented amount of projects being announced or commencing construction. We are seeing a mixture of projects from the major hyperscale developments to refit and refurbishments of the localisation data centres. There doesn’t seem to be many countries in Europe that don’t currently have a data centre under construction or in the final stages of planning with live projects in London, Dublin, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, etc etc.

I first recruited for the data centre sector in 2006 during the financial boom (yes I am that old!) and I have always found it difficult to predict how the sector will evolve in the coming 12-18 months but I think we can all be confident that the sector will continue to see unprecedented growth across the globe.

Below is a snapshot of some of the recent project news;

• Digiplex has broken ground on the construction of two new data centres near Oslo, Norway.
• AirTrunk has announced it is launching a new 20MW facility in Hong Kong. This is a retrofit project of an existing eight storey building.
• Echelon has announced further investment into the data centre sector with confirmation of a £150m project in London alongside the existing developments in planning in Ireland.
• Google has announced that they will be constructing a £550m+ project in Taiwan.
• Amazon confirmed plans to start constructing its £1bn project in Dublin which was first announced in 2017.
• Microsoft commenced construction of its data centre projects near Malmo, Sweden.
• Green Mountain has commenced construction of its facility in Oslo.

As a business we work with some of leading clients in the data centre industry and I am having a lot of positive conversations about forward project pipelines and new facilities going live in the coming months.

Our data centre team is as busy as ever and has a number of excellent opportunities within the construction phase of data centres, and also the ongoing FM and maintenance sector for existing and new facilities.

Please get in contact if you are interested in discussing new opportunities or if you are a client looking to partner with a specialist recruitment company that really understands the data centre and high technology sectors.