Data Centre Services, Ecosystems & Business Models

Chairpersons welcome and opening remarks.

As Europe accelerates its AI ambitions, the demand for scalable, sustainable digital infrastructure has never been greater. In this session, Tate Cantrell, CTO at Verne, examines the challenges and opportunities of powering the AI future, from energy availability and grid constraints to data centre innovation, sustainability, and long-term resilience.

As the demand for AI workloads accelerates, data centre construction is entering into a race to deliver capacity faster, more efficiently, and at greater densities than ever before. Community Pledge is imperative in building data centre. It requires a rethink of a community pledge to the traditional approach of data centre campuses and facilities builds – it demands a fully integrated, end-to-end build approach with Community First in the core design. This keynote session will explore how design strategies provides communities social benefits in new deployments while ensuring a success for Data Centre construction time to market and supply chain integration.

Key topics include:

· How to align EMEA community pledge to support new build of data centres
· How to support community interests in data centre lifecycle design
· How to ensure EMEA thrive with Data centre investments for training, jobs creation, grid infrastructure and environmental stewardship

As governments and businesses invest in the future, the convergence of green finance, digital innovation, and physical infrastructure is reshaping economies worldwide. This panel explores how investment strategies, emerging technologies, and sustainable infrastructure development can work together to drive growth, resilience, and long-term economic and environmental value.

The enterprise edge compute market is not a future opportunity, it is a race already underway, and the finishing order is being determined right now. This session takes an unvarnished look at the competitive dynamics reshaping the edge infrastructure landscape across Europe, and asks a question every player in the room should be able to answer: where do you stand in the ecosystem, and are you moving fast enough?

Abhay Kumar examines why telcos, despite holding the most defensible physical infrastructure position in the market, are at risk of ceding their structural advantage to hyperscalers and alternative providers. He explores the commercial and organisational barriers slowing operator commitment, the enterprise buying signals that are already pointing to a consolidation of vendor choice, and the ecosystem model that is emerging as the most viable path to monetising edge infrastructure at scale.

Flexible contracts and usage-based pricing are transforming how operators manage risk and profitability. This presentation will explore the operational and financial benefits of consumption models, how to embed ESG metrics into pricing strategies, and methods for sharing risk and increasing transparency. Attendees will learn how modern commercial models can drive both business efficiency and customer satisfaction.

As AI infrastructure expands across the Nordics, data centre design must balance resilience, sustainability and performance in some of the world’s most challenging environments. This session explores the architectural, civil and structural considerations behind building AI-ready facilities that can withstand extreme climates while supporting the next generation of digital infrastructure.

Modern data centres face a complex landscape of operational, technical, and strategic challenges—from energy constraints and cooling demands to scalability, security, and cost pressures. This panel brings together industry leaders to discuss how organizations are tackling these hurdles, sharing insights, lessons learned, and best practices to optimize performance, ensure resilience, and drive long-term value.

AI workloads are driving new infrastructure demand, but profitability requires precision planning. In this fireside chat, operators discuss pricing strategies for high-density AI tenants, predictive capacity planning, and cross-selling of value-added services. Attendees will gain insights into how to meet AI-driven demand without overbuilding and how to monetise next-generation workloads effectively.

As demand for digital infrastructure continues to surge, developing the next generation of data centres requires a holistic approach that balances cost, performance, and sustainability. This session will explore the key challenges shaping data centre expansion — from power availability and connectivity to site strategy, scalability, and environmental impact. Attendees will gain insights into how operators, technology leaders, and developers are navigating these factors to build resilient, efficient, and future-ready facilities.

Chairperson’s Closing Remarks.