Global spending on public cloud services is expected to grow by 20.4% in 2024. In this context, Romania is becoming one of the most important markets in the region in the data centre construction sector and major investments in such facilities are expected, said Jurica Franetovic, Sales Director Enterprise CEE, Vertiv.

“In FLAPD (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin), investment has reached saturation point and is now moving into new markets such as Warsaw and Israel. Next steps include Bucharest, Zagreb and Athens. We need to work with local partners to support the industry and benefit from AI development,” said Franetovic, at the DigitALL 2024 conference organized by Energynomics..

He warned that access to energy is a big problem in some places, fortunately not yet in this region. Vertiv has operations in Bucharest and Cluj.

At the same time, the energy demand and thermal management needed to support AI will require new construction or large-scale retrofits, providing opportunities for greener technologies. To meet future energy demands and consumption, data centres will need to be liquid cooled. They will also need to be equipped with energy storage technologies, such as BESS systems, which will become common, supporting the ‘bring your own power’ initiative.

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For future data centre construction, companies will increasingly look to prefabricated modular solutions and maintenance programmes to extend the life of existing equipment and identify operational efficiency opportunities.

DigitALL 2024 was organized by Energynomics, in partnership with reputed organizations such as the CIO Council, with the support of our partners: Corning, Datacor, Eaton Electric, Enevo Group, Procesio, Siemens, Sixt, Vertiv.