Economic impact
To date, hard data are available that demonstrate the impact a datacenter can have on a country’s economy, employment, and social and environmental sustainability.
If the right conditions were created for the sector in terms of taxation, connectivity, energy availability and space, direct investments could reach a volume of about 3,000 million euros over the next three years with a CAGR of 3.80 percent.
To this should be added the indirect investment resulting from the hardware and software supply requirements that this type of center requires and that would imply an additional investment of about 4,000 million euros over the same period, in addition to job creation.
Italy, with its morphology, is strategically well placed to host the new wave of data centre developments thanks to its outlet on the Mediterranean and its logistical capacity to receive and maintain infrastructure.
In order to foster this market, the creation of a simple, transparent and effective regulatory framework is essential, together with the recognition and defence of this sector by governmental and institutional organisations and the willingness to do whatever is necessary to attract national and international capital through the promotion of the country as an investment destination.
The arrival of new submarine cables on the Italian coast, the commitment of new international players in cloud and interconnection services in our country, and the IT maturity of its companies, are all factors that are converging at the same time and at the right moment to face a clear challenge: catching up with other large European technology markets, also known as FLAP countries (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris).
The recent announcement of investments that some Cloud providers are making in our country, together with the intense work being done to obtain the right conditions in terms of taxation, energy availability, and building land, could attract investments only in physical infrastructure estimated at several thousand million euros over the next five years.
These investments would result in an infrastructure with the size of the Italian economy and capable of supporting the country’s GDP. CBRE Italia estimates that, considering the ratio between GDP and the power in MW installed in the relevant data centres, the growth potential of the city of Milan alone compared to the current condition of the FLAP area members is about 5 times.
This investment in infrastructure causes a multiplier effect on investment in other sectors, as well as job creation.
For example, the energy demand of these new datacentres added to those already present in the country would require the production of hundreds of MW of new renewable energy with a very stable consumption, given the 24/7 operation of this sector.
It is estimated, therefore, that around 30,000 highly qualified personnel would be needed for the construction, operation, management of these centres and the allied industries generated.
Once this situation has been reached and considering the size of the Italian economy, the forecast of the main stakeholders is to maintain constant growth over the next five years, which again equates to billions of euros of additional investment with similar effects to those indicated above.
