A data centre is one big building, with human employees and billions of bits of data. In order to keep staff safe, there are fire exits and facilities for comfort, but to keep the data secure, a data centre requires additional infrastructure.
Data centre M&P’s (Mechanical and Plumbing) companies specialise in the design, construction and maintenance for the operation of data centres.
Mechanical systems focus on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which control temperature, humidity and airflow inside of the data centre, as maintaining precise environmental conditions is vital for the performance of the servers (the same can be said for employees too).
Fire detection and suppression systems are designed to detect and extinguish fires while electrical systems are responsible for providing reliable power distribution and backup solutions, to ensure an uninterruptible power supply.
Here’s our Top 10 M&P businesses that keep data centres running.
10. Gratte Brothers
London, UK
Gratte Brothers Group is a family-owned company, which launched in 1946. From building the foundations of the post-war world to designing, installing and maintaining solutions for data centres, as well as security systems, software and foodservice facilities.
The Gratte Brothers Group knows that data centres are the powerhouses of the modern world and ensures that the data centres it builds are sustainable and energy-efficient.
9. Mercury Engineering
Dublin, Ireland
Mercury is a European leader in data centre construction solutions. The company builds and manages engineering and construction projects, which help to deliver technologies that connect people, communities and businesses.
For the past two decades, Mercury has supported some of the biggest technology companies and a range of enterprise clients. Mercury aims to meet the evolving challenges of the data centre market with its highly skilled and internationally mobile project teams.
8. Red Engineering
London, UK
Founded in 2004, no one could have anticipated how much the data centre market would evolve, keeping in with the requirements of the modern age as owning personal devices became mainstream and internet browsing soared.
Red Engineering provides technical expertise to deliver market leading building services and ICT infrastructure engineering solutions. The company goal is to support its global clients to increase their sustainable transformation, with outcomes such as zero carbon.
7. Ramboll
Copenhagen, Denmark
Ramboll Management Consulting wants to see sustainable change. Since its founding in 1968, the company has helped people to move society forward. Now working alongside 700 experts in eight countries with its 18,000 colleagues, Ramboll brings greater value to clients across Europe, US and beyond.
Ramboll’s team are experts in transformational megatrends from digitalisation to mobility and of course sustainability.
Ramboll helps clients to capture the excess heat from data centres, by offering feasibility studies, concept design, supervision during construction and control strategy.
6. WSP
Montreal, Canada
WSP has completed projects in a range of sectors, from financial facilities to trading floors, critical national infrastructure to defence and of course, data centres. The one thing these all have in common? They need to maintain their operations 24/7 and WSP has this covered.
As previously reported by Data Centre magazine, a report commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by WSP, showed that Microsoft Cloud services can be up to 93% more energy efficient than traditional enterprise data centres.
5. Mace
London, UK
Mace are global experts in shaping the built environment - check your local skyline and you’ll probably see a Mace construction crane, building the future.
“The business has a delivery-focused mindset and local knowhow, dating back decades, which means that we can mobilise the best teams in the world, while simultaneously introducing best practice in systems, processes and procedures from incredible data centre projects in the UK and Europe,” said Chris Wallace, Mace’s Head of Data Centres and Critical Facilities.
4. Skanska
Stockholm, Sweden
In 1887, Skanska was a pioneer of concrete. Now, Skanska develops, designs and builds everything from green office buildings to smart homes and infrastructure. But it has always been driven by a dual purpose: to innovate and build what’s good for people, which led it to take on data centres.
As a principle contractor, Skanska specialises in building, fitting out and upgrading data centres in major IT installations and mission critical facilities. Skanska completes everything, from design through to installation.
Skanska recently won a £158m data centre fit out, together with associated construction work, from leading global data centre provider Telehouse. The work will take place as part of a significant upgrade of its largest data centre, Telehouse South at Docklands in London.
3. Arup
London, UK
Dedicated to sustainable development, Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working across 140 countries.
As reported in our Top 10 Data Centre Consultants, Arup’s data centre and mission critical specialists are innovators in technological facilities, working with some of the most complex and data driven companies to meet today’s data needs. Boasting a strong reputation for delivering engineering and consulting services for data centre projects among various other infrastructure and construction initiatives, the company offers science and industry expertise through regional consultants around the world, including the Americas, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and East Asia.
2. Jacobs
Dallas, Texas, USA
Jacobs is the global leader in providing integrated planning, architecture, engineering, project and construction management and commissioning for data centre facilities.
Engineering News-Record named Jacobs as the number one ‘Data Center Design Firm’, while Building Design + Construction celebrated Jacobs as the top ‘Data Center Engineering Firm’.
“With our rapid shift to virtualisation during the past year, data centres are even more critical to how we work and live. Jacobs’ global team works across six continents to deliver projects for some of the world’s largest data centre providers often under crucial time constraints,” said Koti Vadlamudi, Jacobs Senior Vice President and General Manager of Advanced Facilities. “Our team of subject matter experts is also addressing critical challenges for the industry like sustainability and carbon neutrality, driving innovation around renewable power and water technologies for many of our clients.”
1. Aecom
Dallas, Texas, USA
A neighbourhood rival of Jacobs, Aecom is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm and a Fortune 500 firm. In fiscal year 2023, its Professional Services business had revenue of US$14.4bn.
Aecom became an independent company formed by the merger of five entities, with its official founding in 1990, while many of its predecessor firms had distinguished histories dating back more than 120 years.
By 2025, data usage is projected to have increased tenfold on 2018 levels. More data storage space is needed.
“This is leading to a boom in data centre new-build schemes, with construction set to expand by nearly 10 per cent per annum between 2018 and 2025 – creating major opportunities for investors in this alternative, rapidly expanding asset class,” says Will Cagney, Cost Management Associate, M&E Services at Aecom. “For those designing data centres, security, decarbonisation and innovation are the watchwords to ensure that projects are fit for purpose in this extremely fast-moving sector.”
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