Executive Summary
- The feeling of renewal is in the air as we enter Spring – the ideal time for operators to look at infrastructure modernisation.
- The JLL’s 2026 Global Data Centre Outlook report states that we’re in an investment supercycle where the speed of delivery now eclipses efficiency as the primary metric.
- Whether retrofitting or building new, to stay resilient, data centres need to shift to autonomous infrastructure under resilience pressures to remain operational 24/7.
As the sun starts to show its face and it’s no longer dark and gloomy by 3 pm, everyone begins to feel refreshed after the winter, and the theme of renewal is strongly in the air across life, business, and around the world. Naturally, the data centre industry, the digital backbone of our society, focuses on more than dusting the shelves; it starts to clear the cobwebs around infrastructure, shedding old systems that no longer work and making room for modifying existing infrastructure and innovating new sites that can handle the high-density workloads AI is relentlessly bringing to the table.
JLL’s 2026 Global Data Centre Outlook report showcases that in the next four years, data centre capacity will nearly double, at a 14% CAGR through 2030, and we will require alleviating grid pressures, especially with the multi-year delays projects are already facing. The report also boldly states that we’re in an investment supercycle where speed of delivery now eclipses efficiency as the primary metric.
Retrofit vs rebuilds
This report brings us back to the retrofit vs rebuilds debate: yes, that old chestnut. As new data centres are being built ready to go with AI infrastructure, the consensus with operators is to manage infrastructure evolution through systemic upgrades, with very few sites being decommissioned. Operators right now are currently preferring retrofits – and who wouldn’t? While modernising existing data centres could run into structural limitations, it has 3050% less CapEx, has a faster time to market and already has a grid connection – something very in demand and in short supply these days.
According to the report, after 10 years of operation, it’s expected that data centres will undergo significant renovations, with a full lifecycle rest after 15 years of operation.
That being said, both retrofitting and rebuilding infrastructure will both have to be prepared for the new wave of AI advancements, to make existing data centres keep up with demand and innovate new sites to help handle the pressure of 24/7 operations.
Shifting to autonomous infrastructure
AI’s expansion sent a shockwave through the industry, as it demanded real-time analytics and more autonomous systems and processes. Thus, the infrastructure needed to change and adapt.
For decades, it was all about N+1, having a backup for your backup, but infrastructure is moving beyond redundancy to autonomous infrastructure. Manual intervention, aka human error, can really be a bottleneck while trying to stay up and running with little to no downtime, so shifting to automated processes, systems and maintenance is purely a no-brainer.
Instead of waiting for a human to respond to the alert, smart infrastructure can now leverage real-time analytics, particularly in cooling, with AI agents adapting the cooling requirements based on what’s needed and avoiding a thermal spike – all without an engineer lifting a finger.
Shaking off the dust
As the industry shakes off the literal and metaphorical dust from 2025, it has to prepare itself for the revolution coming this year: modernise or face stagnation. By reflecting, analysing and implementing more smart tech into their sites, operators are sowing the seeds for rapid AI-data centre growth at the end of this year and into 2027.
