Data Dive: Navigating Data Centres with Simmons

In this podcast series, we explore the world of Data Centres, which lie at the core of the digital infrastructure platform that enables the modern world to operate. As many listeners will know, they are the home of the Cloud and the powerhouse of the promise (and challenges) of Artificial Intelligence. They are also at the centre of discussions around energy transition and the race to net zero. As the interest in and demand for data centres both as investments and as a service have grown over the past two decades so have the complexity of laws surrounding them.

On 18 November, the EU Commission announced that it had carried out unannounced inspections, also known as Dawn Raids, on companies active in the data centre construction sector, as well as issuing formal requests for information.

In this podcast, Barry Gross speaks with Andrea Pomana, a Partner in our Simmons & Simmons Antitrust and Competition team, to discuss what this might mean, what happens next, and what the wider implications for the data centre sector might be.

Over the course of this series and beyond, we’ll be taking a look back at key developments in the industry and looking forward, to how these changes might affect the sector for the years to come. We will be joined by industry experts and cover key industry topics, such as the impact of AI, the challenge of powering data centres, and how the global focus on ESG affects the Data Centre sector. So settle back, relax and enjoy!

Episode 1 - An introduction to our podcast, Data Dive: Exploring Data Centres with Simmons, and a review of the key developments in the industry from the last few years, with the co-heads of the Simmons Data Centre team, Barry Gross and Kirsty Barnes.

Episode 2 - Barry Gross and Tom Glover, Head of Data Centres Transactions at JLL, sit down to discuss what is in store for the DC Industry in the years ahead.

Episode 3 - Barry Gross sits down with Arun Shenoy, Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of Sales at Serverfarm, to discuss the highly topical subject of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on the Data Centre Industry.

Episode 4 - Barry Gross sits down with Paul Cranfield, a partner at VIPA Digital, to discuss all things Power.

Episode 5 - Charles Goodwin sits down with Vincent Fogarty, Managing Director at Diales, to discuss the challenges facing construction professionals in the data centre industry and how they are overcoming these.

Episode 6 - We head over to Europe to discuss the outlook in France and Italy, to gauge what each market and jurisdiction is seeing in the exciting world of data centres. Charles Goodwin is joined by Eliza Bocianowski, a partner in the Simmons Paris office, and Emanuela Molinaro, a partner in the Simmons Milan office.

Episode 7 - We continue our “view from Europe” focus, as Charles Goodwin sits down with Boris Strauch, a Partner in the Simmons Frankfurt office, and Alfonso Fernandez-Puebla, a partner in the Simmons Madrid office, to get their view on the German and Spanish Data Centre markets and some key legal developments in each.

Episode 8 - Charles Goodwin and Phil Bower, Head of the Data Centre and technology practice at Towergate Insurance, discuss the role of an insurance broker in the data centre industry, the types of claims and evolving risks the sector is seeing, and how the Insurance market perceives data centres.

Episode 9 - Barry Gross sits down with Terry King, regional director for EMEA and APAC at Guidepost, to discuss physical security at Data Centres, including the fundamental nature of security to data centres, the common flaws in security systems and the standards of security that data centres have to achieve.

Episode 10 - Barry Gross and Andy Davis, founder of DataX Connect, discuss talent constraints in the Data Centre industry and the importance of raising publicity for Data Centres.

Episode 11 - Barry Gross and Sophia Flucker, Technical Director at MiCiM Ltd and Managing Director of Operational Intelligence Ltd, discuss sustainability and power in the world of Data Centres.

Episode 12 – Barry Gross is joined by Anthony McDermott and Ronan Tynan from Mitchell McDermott, to discuss the evolution of data centres, cost and project management, contractor engagement and procurement strategies, and future-proofing data centres.

Episode 13 – Barry Gross and Andy Hartwill, Client Insights Lead at Simmons & Simmons discuss the current status of US tariffs, the hotly anticipated US Supreme Court decision on their legality and what happens next if SCOTUS rules against the Trump administration.

Episode 14 – Barry Gross is joined by Ashley Thomas, Head of Structured Finance (UK) at ARC Ratings, to discuss the fundamentals of securitisation, focusing on its growing relevance in the data centre industry due to increasing capital requirements and the limitations of traditional bank financing.

Interested in hearing more?

Listen to our previous Data Centre podcast series, where we take a deep dive into the world of data centres to provide insight on the rapidly growing industry.

1. Data centres in our data-driven world: We take a look at the growing and ever more important role of data centres to modern society, their key features, and why it is such a growing market globally. In the first episode of this series, Kirsty Barnes, Emily Monastiriotis and Charles Goodwin are joined by Dan Mace, Executive Vice President - Data Centres at Bouygues Energies & Services.

2. The data centre - fundamentals explained: Charles Goodwin, Steven Kaye and Cian O'Hara are joined by Dan Mace, Executive Vice President - Data Centres at Bouygues Energies & Services as they take a look at the key characteristics of a functional data centre, focusing on the significant power demand and corresponding prerequisites to the operation of a data centre, its fibre and connectivity requirements, and the importance of fire suppression in these facilities.

3. Transactional trends and market insights - part 1: Charles Goodwin, Kirsty Barnes, James Cotter, Marc Fevre and Andrew Petry take a closer look at data centres as a mainstream asset class and explore the underlying business, as our experts and guests provide their insight into the current trends in the sector and provide some key commercial advice on a variety of data centre deals that they have experienced - part 1.

4. Transactional trends and market insights - part 2: We take a closer look at data centres as a mainstream asset class and explore the underlying business, as our experts and guests provide their insight into the current trends in the sector and provide some key commercial advice on a variety of data centre deals that they have experienced - part 2. In this fourth podcast, Charles Goodwin, Duncan Athol, Andrew Russell and Jo Crookshank are joined by Tom Dryden, Partner at McGill and Partners.

5. The view from our international network: Charles Goodwin, Cian O'Hara, Boris Strauch, Christopher Gotz, Rob Hendricks and Olivia Darlington continue to look at data centres as a mainstream asset class by exploring 4 key and growing international markets for data centres: Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and the Middle East.

6. Data centres and the race to zero emissions: We explore the intersection of data centres and ESG considerations for the industry, focusing on the environmental impact, challenges and considerations for data centres, as well as some of the proposed solutions for dealing with these issues. In this podcast, Emily Monastiriotis and Cian O'Hara are joined by David Watkins, Solutions Director of VIRTUS Data Centres.

7. Managing risks for data centres: Emily Monastiriotis, Steven Kaye, Charles Goodwin and Tom Bowen view data centres through the prism of disputes, considering some of the possible areas in which disputes can arise in this field, and looking at effective ways to mitigate those risks.

8. The future of data centres: We peer into our mystic ball and look at the future of data centres, focusing on how the industry might develop in the coming years and the significant challenges it faces. We look at some of the exciting advances being made, such as mobile and even underwater centres, whilst providing a general overview as to the direction the industry is heading in. As a finale, we get the predictions for the next 5-10 years from three industry titans. In this final episode, Charles Goodwin, Steven Kaye and Kirsty Barnes are joined by Dan Mace, Executive Vice President - Data Centres at Bouygues Energies & Services, Peter Hannaford, Senior Partner at Portman Partners and Neil Cresswell, CEO of VIRTUS Data Centres.

9. Predictions for the Data Centre Industry: In this additional episode, Steven Kaye, Charles Goodwin and Cian O’Hara take a look at some predictions for the data centre industry, focusing on how the market might develop in the coming year and the significant challenges it faces.

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