Global data centre electricity demand has already seen a huge shift in recent years and is only expected to surge higher over the next decade as AI workloads grow, forcing operators to rethink how infrastructure expands. Traditional expansion models centred on larger facilities and more hardware are no longer sustainable as energy costs rise, and environmental pressures intensify. Therefore, the question now is: How can data centre operators scale while managing energy constraints, sustainability pressures and rising costs? Three industry experts discuss this and explain how efficiency-driven design, renewable energy integration and workload optimisation can help meet rising performance needs while controlling power consumption and costs.

Walid Issa, Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering – Middle East & Africa, NetApp:

Data centre operators are expanding capacity at a time when energy has become the limiting factor. According to the International Energy Agency, electricity demand from data centres is expected to rise sharply through 2030, driven largely by AI workloads. In the Middle East, projections show regional capacity could grow from roughly 1.2GW to 3.3GW within five years, more than doubling as digital infrastructure investment accelerates.

Scaling data centre capacity in today’ s environment requires a fundamental shift toward smarter, more efficient infrastructure. Data Center Operators can no longer rely on

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