I’m an invisible pillar of the connected world. The IoT, smartphones, computers, social networks, healthcare, education and streaming couldn’t function without me. Who am I?
A data centre! The humming heart of the digital world. The exponential growth in the volumes of data traffic reflects the diversification of digital applications. Data centres are essential facilities for the secure storage and efficient processing of these vast amounts of information.
By way of illustration, looking only at data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices, estimates put global data generation at more than 73 zettabytes (73 trillion gigabytes) by 2025. With current technology, it would take about 1,000 data centres to store 1 zettabyte. Faced with this strong growth in data traffic, there is an urgent need to build and expand data centres’ capacity. However, the big technical challenge is to increase data centres’ capacity while limiting their energy and water consumption, managing their heat transfers and guaranteeing uninterrupted operation.
The data centre, a real value generator
Data centres provide considerable added value in a number of areas:
- In the community, they drive economic and social development. By providing access to local digital services, they strengthen the reliability of infrastructures.
- For businesses, they play a key role in the smooth & secure collaboration with customers, suppliers and partners, supporting sales activities and the expansion of professional networks.
- Regarding utilities and public administration, France stands out as Europe’s leader and the world’s fourth most advanced country in terms of e-government, with a focus on data sovereignty. In 2019, 65% of the French paid their taxes online, illustrating the successful integration of digital technology.
- For end users, the whirlwind adoption of smartphones, tablets, IoT, etc. bears witness to data centres’ importance in everyday life.
Innovating to protect the environment
Data centres, which account for 25% of the digital sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, have improved their energy efficiency. This progress involves continually exploring new sustainable technologies and practices – including efficient cooling, renewable energies, and green buildings. The potential for continuous improvement is all the more critical as the need for data processing and storage continues to grow.
Your high-quality, standards-compliant data centre
We tailor our services to our clients’ unique requirements for their data centres’ operation. Our benchmark is the Uptime Institute’s Tier Standards, an industry standard that measures infrastructure reliability and redundancy. It considers key elements such as maintenance, power and cooling. Tier Standards categorise data centres into four levels, from Tier I to Tier IV, providing a scale of increasing availability and redundancy.
Expertise and know-how: the cornerstone of data centre design and management
Creating and managing a data centre requires a diverse range of technical skills and expertise.
With half a century of engineering expertise and a construction capability exceeding one million square metres annually, GSE excels in the design and construction of industrial buildings. We are currently expanding our value proposition by putting together a technical and sales team with extensive know-how in data centres and engineering. Our solution is to offer you a turnkey service: a secure site, audited & approved for technical and environmental performance, to ensure that construction can be carried out with complete peace of mind and in compliance with the rules of safety, quality, planning and costs.
It all starts with the site’s meticulous design and robust construction, which must take into account not only the building’s architectural aspects but also the entire supporting infrastructure. This includes reliable, well-dimensioned electrical systems to supply all critical equipment without fail, as well as advanced security infrastructures to ensure that data is protected against any intrusion or incident. These facilities must be operated by qualified teams to keep the entire system operational, secure and optimised.
As a general contractor, GSE offers comprehensive support from design to construction and commissioning, or simply for construction and commissioning alone. Through detailed design management and rigorous construction supervision, our professionals provide tailored solutions to bring your projects to fruition.
Data centre construction will continue to accelerate. A PWC survey showed that AI’s integration into the economy is growing rapidly, with 73% of US companies having already integrated this technology into their operations in 2023. While generative AI is full of promise, it is predicted that in 2024, despite good returns on investment for many companies, only some will truly succeed in capitalising and creating significant added value thanks to this technology. This underscores the need for a strategic and differentiated approach to AI adoption to fully leverage its potential.
