Data Center Bytes

The UK government published on April 1 a policy statement setting out its proposals for the much-anticipated Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (the Bill). The proposals include bringing data centers and managed service providers within scope of the United Kingdom’s cybersecurity regulatory framework, strengthening supply chain obligations for designated operators of essential services, updating technical security standards, and new executive powers for the UK government to direct regulated entities in relation to a specific cyber incident or threat.

While a data center may seem similar to a large warehouse, data centers are high-intensity utility consumers that have special requirements compared to a typical warehouse acquisition project. There are several crucial items to address in negotiating purchase and sale agreements and conducting due diligence of land for the development of data centers.

A day does not go by this year without news of another major investment in data centers or the infrastructure—including facilities, power, and cooling systems—that is needed to run data centers. Notwithstanding all the data center buzz, there has not (yet) been a lot of focus on the next phase of the data center life cycle, the phase after “build,” which we refer to as the “operate” phase. With thousands of data centers already operational and many others in various stages of “build” with plans to be operational on tight time frames, it only follows that the opportunities and challenges of the data center operator will gain more attention in the evolving data center conversations.