Bizclik’s latest event, Data Centre LIVE, wrapped up yesterday, bringing together technology leaders and innovators in the data centre industry for a virtual deep dive to gain fresh insights from companies including AVK, Google, Pure Data Centres Group, Huawei, VIRTUS Data Centres, and Vodafone.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what we listened to, and what this could mean for the data centre industry for now and the future.

Future Proofing Data Centres: Sustainability and the Role of Retrofitting

As the digital world expands, data centres are facing growing pressure to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. In Data Centre LIVE’s standout keynote address, Gary Watson, Country Manager at Keppel DC REIT Ireland, explored the future of data centres in terms of sustainability, and how businesses can upgrade existing infrastructure to drive efficiency, sustainability, and long-term resilience.

With over 30 years in the industry working across the telecoms, data centre, manages services, and cloud sector in Europe, Gary Watson looked at retrofitting being the key to a greener future. With thousands of ageing infrastructures still present in the digital ecosystem, enhancing and optimising data centres is needed, and upgrading cooling, power distribution, and AI-driven energy managements can transform older facilities into more sustainable powerhouses.

“There’s no one size fits all data centre that’s for sure”, said Watson, “We’re leaving a wake of older data centres in our path and for the team, it’s very much the case of how we take those aging assets and make them more sustainable to deliver to customers that have certain applications – there’s a raft of opportunities globally.”

Gary explained further that as legacy data centres are operating on a 24/7 basis, the journey to balancing efficiency and continuity is delicate. The process starts with assessing the existing infrastructure, weighing the costs of ownership over its lifetime against costs of implementation and carbon reduction – all to support maximise efficiency and give certainty of uninterrupted delivery. Technology is evolving daily, and retrofitted data centres staying relevant is becoming a larger challenge. But the answer lies in maintaining engagement with the end-user and industry progression to stay ahead in this competitive digital landscape.

As we listened to the discussion, our takeaway was that retrofitting is a necessity for achieving sustainability goals. By modernising existing facilities and fostering a culture of innovation and environmental impact concern, data centres can become more efficient in their path to a net zero digital future.

Microgrids: The Journey to Sustainable AI Data Centres in Europe

AVK’s Vice President of Sales – Energy Solutions, Bob Downing, took to the stage and walked us through the journey of microgrids resiliency, and how they are revolutionising sustainable AI data centres and net zero emissions goals in the industry. This session highlighted the definition of microgrids, going into the consideration and criteria for microgrid implementation, and looking to the future in how microgrids can be used for a more sustainable data centre sector.

At AVK, the definition of a microgrid is more than just an energy centre, but the most important element to focus on is that a microgrid is designed for a specific load to support data centres, working in harmony with the network and providing power to the grid or load. From deployment to completion to basic engineering, these well-established technologies are important as a part of the energy infrastructure network.

“There’s not a one size fits all technology,” Bob said, but with the amount of energy consumption that is a high challenge for the industry, “Because we are creating energy, we have losses, we have emissions, so we [AVK] are trying to patch those and be as responsible as we can.”

Fuel consideration is vital for data centres. From natural gas to hydrogen and alternatives fuels, there are lots of testing happening for less emissions to ensure the pathway to net zero. Governments are starting to create long-term plans for energy efficiency, but we must design for the future. Looking to sustainability, Bob goes into depth at how microgrids are underpinning the journey to net zero, and making sure we are future-fuel ready in effectively ensuring there is enough capacity in the network for fuel distribution. As Bob added: “Microgrids or energy centres are vital in the journey to net zero.”

As the session came to a close, the lasting thought was that microgrids will be a driving force in achieving net zero goals. Ensuring future proofed data centres with efficient energy solutions, data centres can build resilience, while reducing environmental impact in the process.
This year, Spa Communications was proud to support Data Centre LIVE in amplifying these critical conversations across the industry.

“Data Centre LIVE has been recognised as the foundation conference for those in the data centre industry, and we’re thrilled to collaborate with Bizclik Media to expand its reach among influential leaders in the sector,” said Charlotte Wood, Account Director, Spa Communications.