Data centres, investments and rules to launch Italy as a strategic hub

Data centres as the fulcrum of Italy's economic and digital development. A strategic infrastructure that presents great opportunities, but also great challenges: its growth must in fact be made 'compatible' with the current path of green transition, identifying sustainable and 'circular' technological and energy solutions; without neglecting the logistical-geographical and normative issues, given that at the moment there is still no homogeneous framework in Italy. These and other points emerged at the recent meeting "From data to growth: data centres at the heart of the changing economy", organised by the American Chamber of Commerce Italy, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, JLL, Bcg and Maisto e Associati. In essence, as stressed by AmCham's Managing Director, Simone Crolla - "we need a systemic vision and multi-level governance capable of recognising the strategic relevance of data centres for digital autonomy, national security and economic growth", all the more so with the advent of generative AI. Also because Italy, with its strong geographical position in the Mediterranean backbone, is the natural candidate to be a crucial hub for data traffic between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This is why, according to the experts, it is essential to equip itself with the infrastructures that are indispensable for playing this role, such as data centres where vast amounts of digital information converge, are stored and managed.

'In today's economy,' Crolla added, 'digital is the real strategic infrastructure on which the competitiveness of entire economic systems is based. At the heart of this transformation are data centres, essential hubs for the management, processing and security of the data that power digital services for businesses, public administrations and citizens". Moreover, the growth prospects are significant: according to Sherif Rizkalla, President of the Italian Datacenter Association and Managing Director of STACK Infratructure, by 2026 the Italian data centre market will reach 1 GW, with further projects for another GW, putting it on the same level as the leading countries in Europe. In all, he noted, the development of this sector can bring investments in the order of 20 billion. The main challenges, according to the expert, are threefold: "normative, because we need a national framework that avoids speculation and 'arbitrage' between regions, energy and that linked to skills and talent". Along the same lines Giulia Scerrato, Principal Energy and Tech Practice of the Boston Consulting Group, who pointed out how the arrival of the GenAI has transformed the data centre market: Italy can become a strategic hub, provided that investments are carefully planned and energy solutions are adopted that are up to the standards of a world that will be increasingly electrified, hence renewables but also nuclear, which in turn also favour the zeroing of emissions.

The theme of green transition and circularity is key according to Stefania Vigna, Head of Innovation Intelligence Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. "The expansion of the software market related to artificial intelligence is growing at an exponential rate, bringing epochal changes in the development and training of algorithms, especially those related to Generative AI. - he pointed out - On the energy front, globally, by 2030 data centres will need 220 GW compared to the current 70 GW, and in the next five years, globally, investments of around 6.7 trillion dollars will be required, 5.2 of which will be earmarked for AI infrastructure". Moreover, "as Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center we are carefully studying the evolutions linked to the development of AI and the related energy requirements, in collaboration with Italian and international universities and study centres, to try to identify innovative solutions for a sustainable change for both the market and society. Looking further ahead, given that the activities linked to the evolution of the Space Economy already entail a high production of data, especially in the observation of erra, we are already thinking of processing them directly in space, through data centres built directly in orbit, according to circular by design logic'. The space node, moreover, will sooner or later become crucial, starting with Lombardy, which in Italy will in the future be the region with the greatest 'crowding' of data centres. According to Alberico Radice Fossati, Country Leader of JLL (a leading global real estate consultancy company), the prices of available surfaces to build data centres have already reached important levels. This is why, also with a view to circularity, one could imagine building them - subject to the necessary checks - using former disused industrial sites.

Finally, the technology theme, which is by no means secondary. Antonio D'Ortenzio, Senior Manager Solution Architect Amazon Web Services Italy, highlighted the key role of data centres for tech giants relying on the cloud. At the same time, he highlighted AWS's approach to data centre infrastructure in Italy, where they are able to create prospects for circularity at the energy level and create positive effects for the local induced revenue. Carlo Vaiti, HPE Distinguished Chief Technologist, on the other hand, illustrated how portable data centres and customised artificial intelligence can represent an agile and flexible solution for businesses, also with a view to district heating (exploiting the heat generated); not forgetting, in view of the future, the role of liquid cooling.