April 9, 2025 | Ella Krygiel, BOMA International
It’s no secret that the data center market is thriving. According to JLL’s North America Data Center Report Year-End 2024, the sector remains the most favored real estate class due to its insatiable tenant demand, limited supply and rising rents. The industry’s growth is surging internationally as well. For instance, data centers officially became classified as critical national infrastructure in the UK in 2024, “becoming one of a growing list of countries—including the U.S.—to acknowledge the criticality of these facilities, putting them on equal footing with water, energy and emergency services systems,” CBRE states. Data centers are critical because they store and distribute much of the world’s data, and as a result, they require a large number of resources to maintain their operations. According to an environmental research study, data center operations require significant amounts of energy and water, components that will only continue to stay relevant as the data center industry expands. The CBRE report, Designing Data Center Operations for Tomorrow’s Demand, outlines these considerations as data center operators balance design and operational goals.
As their report found, by 2029 global internet users are projected to reach 7.9 billion: a staggering 47% increase from 5.35 billion in 2024. Pat Lynch, Executive Managing Director, Data Center Solutions, CBRE weighs in on this expansion: “Data center demand will continue to rise sharply over the next few years, driven by the increased adoption of cloud, AI and digital technologies. Our pipeline globally remains strong from enterprise, hyperscale and AI clients, with sustained momentum across these segments. The shift to a more digitized global economy is fueling a constant need for infrastructure to support data storage, processing and delivery.”
Building resilient data centers entails some forward thinking. With the Department of Energy reporting that data centers will consume approximately 6.7 to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028, it’s essential to prioritize long-term energy efficiency in facilities. Sam Rudek, Chief Operating Officer, Americas, Data Center Solutions, CBRE provides his tips for enhancing the cost-effectiveness of data center operations through the following strategic areas:
- Operational efficiency: “Operational efficiency considerations include advanced monitoring and analytics to help us forecast issues, enable proactive maintenance and minimize down time; automation of routine tasks to reduce human error, free up staff for more complex work, and speed up response times; and energy optimization tactics like energy efficient cooling technologies and the utilization of advanced modeling to fine tune energy settings, among other things.”
- Talent development: “Our talent development approach includes data-driven training strategies to create targeted training programs unique to employees and a multifaced sourcing approach to ensure we have the right mix of employees and skill sets. We have strong partnerships and programs pulling from places like trade schools and military veterans programs to ensure a strong pipeline and, internally, have implemented our own leadership development, knowledge sharing and performance feedback programs and processes to both support our employees in their career development goals and ensure we are creating the next generation of data center worker.”
- Supply chain management: “Supply chain management is another key factor in our operations strategy. We leverage a global network of preferred vendors and our in-house expertise to deliver customized solutions. Our internal expertise and ability to buy at-scale are critical to our ability to deliver cost-effective and efficient supply chain strategies.”
- AI applications: “AI is another key area of focus. We’re seeing data center operators utilize AI in a number of ways, including improving energy efficiency by proactively managing Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE); monitoring a facility’s hardware to extend its usable life by proactively detecting and fixing issues; and assisting in planning a data center’s physical space, while also monitoring temperature and humidity constraints.”
Among these strategies for improving the effectiveness of data centers, Rudek points out an important topic regarding proactive maintenance. According to Data Center Dynamics, AI with machine learning (ML) algorithms are laying the groundwork for helping maintenance scheduling become proactive, which helps optimize equipment performance by identifying issues before they lead to failures. Harnessing AI/ML in data centers also improves energy efficiencies through its ability to adjust temperature set points, maximize air flow and recalibrate equipment to peak efficiency.
“AI is just one of the many workloads that are driving demand for data centers, which are also supporting a wide range of other applications, from online shopping and banking to social media and streaming services,” Lynch says. “Cloud migration, digital transformation and growing expectations around data availability and latency are also contributing to this growth. However, the supply side has been challenged by power issues, which is expected to continue to impact the industry for the next 24 to 36 months.”
In addition to Lynch’s predictions for where the industry is heading, he believes that data center developers will turn to next-generation cooling infrastructure, such as liquid cooling. According to Vertiv, data center operators are evaluating liquid cooling technologies to increase energy efficiency as process-intensive computing applications grow. Liquid cooling may be a suitable option for organizations looking to make their data center more green and efficient as this method uses less water and electricity, TechTarget reports. This is significant given that water is a major resource for data centers. In fact, the United States’ data centers reportedly consume 1.7 billion liters of water per day according to a 2021 Data centre water consumption study. This raises alarms for the stockholders, investment firms and customers searching for sustainable options. As TechTarget reports, “Given the increasing pressure to support greater sustainability, liquid cooling could become the only viable option, so organizations should prepare for the transition.”
“Liquid cooling is quickly becoming essential for data centers looking to support the most demanding AI workloads, and we’re seeing a significant shift towards adoption of these advanced cooling solutions in the US market,” Lynch says. “For more resources on this topic, here is a piece we wrote last year on ‘Five Considerations to Prepare Data Centers for High Density Computing.’”
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