Europe is the New Route for Turnkey Data Center Projects
Platin / November 2024
In which areas do you operate as Serban?
As one of the leading companies of Açık Holding, we operate in the construction, energy, tourism, and real estate sectors.
We are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and are proud of the journey we have made since our story began. We participate in large-scale projects, leveraging our expertise and experience in engineering and contracting services, particularly offering turnkey solutions for data center projects. In these projects, we integrate modern technologies with a focus on the principles of innovation, efficiency, and sustainability, while delivering the entire project on a turnkey basis.
How did your development process in the Data Center sector begin?
Our work in the data center sector started with the emergence of the Law on the Protection of Personal Data in Turkey and data storage obligations in the financial sector. As a technology-oriented company, we decided to offer professional solutions with our know-how to complete these complex projects that involve highly engineered solutions.
We stepped into the data center sector by combining our experience in telecommunications and construction. When we entered the data center sector, we realized that the construction part only constitutes about 17-20% of the project, while about 80% of the work requires high engineering solutions.
Considering that data centers are complex, highly engineered structures, we have specialized in the sector in depth. With our strong technological infrastructure and engineering know-how, we have gone beyond the conventional construction approach and have become an engineering and contracting company that produces turnkey services.
You stand out with your ability to complete turnkey projects in data centers. So how would you define the concept of turnkey service?
The principle of turnkey service allows us to manage all stages of a project from a single point, preventing waste of time and resources. This offers significant convenience for investors. We handle the project from start to finish, providing support at every stage, from land selection and design to feasibility, construction, and technological integration. The projects we have completed with Turkcell, Turkey's largest technology company, which leads the country's digital transformation through its technological infrastructure investments, mark our first ventures in this field.
How do you make a difference in the data center industry?
We stand out in the data center industry with our ability to build turnkey data centers that meet international standards. We are the only company that provides end-to-end services in this way. We provide comprehensive solutions and manage the entire project, including high-engineering solutions, design, implementation, air conditioning, and automation, all within the scope of our turnkey service. We ensure time and cost efficiency at every stage of the process, which provides a significant advantage for data center investors. In other words, if you want to invest in a data center anywhere in the world today, you only need to come to us to realize these complex structures.
We also design and implement our projects according to the highest internationally recognized quality standards. Thanks to redundant infrastructures, energy efficiency solutions, automation and systems equipped with the latest technologies, we ensure reliability, scalability and uninterruption.
Can you give us a breakdown of the projects you have completed? What are your future targets?
We have completed important data center projects of Turkey's largest technology companies. As of now, we have completed projects with an IT load of over 100 megawatts.
In the near future, our goal is to be the first company that comes to the minds of data center investors not only in Turkey but also on a global scale. In line with this goal, we have started to take important steps in Europe, first establishing companies in the UK and Germany. Thus, we aim to play a more active role in the region. In 2025, we plan to further strengthen our organization in Europe. We are constantly working to respond to the changing demands of data centers.
What do you think about the growth and future of the data center market?
The data center market is growing with the acceleration of digital transformation and supported by new technological developments. The proliferation of cloud computing is increasing the demand for data centers. In addition, the advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence further strengthens this demand, making the role of data centers even more critical.
The effects of the transformation are also clearly visible in Turkey. Our country has the potential to become a regional data center as it is a strategic bridge between Europe and Asia. Research also shows that the data center market in the world will reach $622.4 billion between 2024 and 2030. In line with our strategic growth plans, we are increasing our investments in R&D, P&D and human resources. We focus on innovation, efficiency and security. We aim to strengthen our competitive advantage by making the momentum we have achieved in the sector sustainable.
What are the challenges faced in finding qualified experts in the data center industry? What strategies and solutions do you plan to develop to overcome these challenges?
Data center projects involve different engineering disciplines. Human resources working in the sector need to have not only technical knowledge but also competencies in different fields. This makes it difficult to find competent professionals in the sector.
As a company that offers end-to-end data center services, we are aware of our responsibilities towards the sector. We cooperate with universities both to employ within our organization and to train human resources that will trigger the competitive environment in the sector. As the first example of this cooperation, we collaborated with the Açık Academy within Açık Holding and Kocaeli University. Within the scope of the project, we provide “Data Center Systems” courses to Electrical Engineering students for 14 weeks and bring them together with industry professionals.
Thus, we aim to close the competency gap in the sector and offer opportunities that will shape the careers of young engineers. We not only contribute to the career development of students, but also provide significant support to the development of the industry. We believe that these strategic steps will contribute to the sustainable growth and innovation of the data center industry. Our projects to train qualified graduates for data centers will continue.