Whilst ‘manifest’ bagged the Word of the Year for 2024, the industry could be forgiven for holding out hope that ‘data centre’ might make it for 2025. Following Rachel Reeves’ first speech as Chancellor that held up data centre development as an example of political commitment to economic growth, there has been wave after wave of investment stories, and most-recently an analysis of the potential £44bn that the sector could yield.

Organisations across the globe have shifted to specialist data centres facilities to look after their computing power. But by externalising the work, there is a risk of promoting a mirage that the environmental impact of digital technologies is immaterial. We must be clear; these technologies require valuable physical and energy resources. Collaboration and transparency is needed to manage their effective deployment.

Mike Hoy, CTO, Pulsant looks ahead to the next 12 months, identifying some of the challenges organisations are likely to face in delivering AI projects, and highlighting the importance of a resilient, connected infrastructure in meeting these. As AI proofs of concept evolve over the next 12–18 months, they will lay the groundwork for advances in technology.

The Foundations of the Future report recently commissioned by techUK, and developed by Henham Strategy, raises many points for consideration. It is an important attempt at quantifying the UK’s data centre assets. As a sector, the UK data centre industry is worth £4.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually, supporting 43,500 jobs and contributing £640 million in tax revenue to the exchequer.