Digital infrastructure: seven steps to unlock growth
A plan to strengthen data centres, networks and computing capacity has been presented to the Ministry of Economic Development. Calls have been made for a network of AI Factories, less red tape and a more forward-looking approach to public procurement.
Artificial intelligence promises to transform factories, offices and public administration. But before we can talk about models, algorithms and applications, we need cables, servers, data centres, electricity and security. And Italia, warns Anitec-Assinform, risks talking a lot about the future without laying its foundations quickly enough.
This is the starting point for the paper “Digital infrastructure as an enabler for the evolution of advanced technologies” by Anitec-Assinform – the leading trade association for digital (Information and Communication Technology) and consumer electronics companies operating in Italia – presented to the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy. The common thread is the call for the government to treat digital infrastructure as a national priority. The timing is crucial: over the next three to five years, investment in data centres is estimated at 22–25 billion euros. However, slow authorisation processes, fragmented regulations, energy costs and the geographical concentration of hubs risk diverting capital elsewhere.
“Investing in digital infrastructure,” comments Valerio Romano, Anitec-Assinform board member responsible for the Twin Transition, “means not only enabling innovation but also strengthening the country’s capacity to support the digital transformation, attract investment and generate economic and social value in the long term. This requires swift decisions, a strategic vision and coordinated action between institutions, businesses and the research community.”
The document thus translates this concern into seven proposals. The first concerns business continuity. With interconnected services, a failure, attack or emergency can spread throughout the supply chains. Anitec-Assinform therefore proposes a national framework to identify critical digital services, coordinate institutions and operators, and provide for computing and connectivity reserves that can be activated immediately. Resilience cannot be improvised when the network goes down.
The second step concerns public procurement. Today, price is often the dominant factor. The paper calls for reliability, adaptability and long-term sustainability to be taken into account as well. Spending less at the point of purchase can mean paying more later on, when infrastructure fails to cope with a peak in demand, an incident or innovation.
