As the digital revolution steams forward, with exploding demand for cloud computing and a host of functions that have fallen under the umbrella label “artificial intelligence”, it can sometimes be easy to forget that all of these virtual assets have very real feet of clay. Our online world needs to be stored on hard drives in the real world, built on real land, kept running by real power, built, and operated by real people. CBRE Data Centre Solutions’ job is to identify, locate and provide those resources. Working to its clients’ exacting specifications, CBRE’s Site Selection business identifies and sources assets including land, power, and buildings, and collaborates with architects, engineers, and consultants to give the client the finished data centre they need. Once that data centre is operating, CBRE helps market those data halls to colocation providers through its end-user-oriented Occupiers and Digital Infrastructure Advisory lines. The Digital Infrastructure Advisory Line also carries out IT infrastructure audits and provides recommendations, while CBRE’s Occupiers line advises the end user about which data centres can best host its servers, and then negotiate a contract for them with the colocation provider. CBRE’s Capital Market team provides transaction services to investors dedicated to the data centre sector, while CBRE GWS handles Project Management and Facility Management services for users.
“We are an American-based company with 130,000 people working around the world,” says Séraphin Bravard, Director of CBRE Data Centre Solutions in France. “Most of the data centre players are American, and here we have very good, established relationships with the US while serving as a European hub.”
Bravard operates out of France, with his own team occupying the CBRE Data Centre European Hub, while remaining connected with CBRE’s presence in France, Germany, Iberia, Italy, the Netherlands, and Nordic countries, and CBRE’s historic European headquarters in Europe. It is this wide spread that gives CBRE its most powerful advantage on the market.
“We have a lot of people dedicating their time to data centres, enabling us to not only collect a lot of information from across Europe, but to cross-reference that information to provide a detailed vision of the market,” Bravard says. “That is also thanks to our workplace solutions company, CBRE WGS (Global Workplace Services), dedicated Project Management and Facility Management for data centres. This represents 6,000 people around the world, allowing us to extend our network in the data centre industry and providing good market visibility.”
Because CBRE has dedicated data centre teams all around the world working for the same clients, the company is able to maintain a good understanding of its clients’ international strategies and needs.
“We know what they are looking for and what they can do,” Bravard tells us. “It’s nice to have this perspective on the market compared to our competitors.”
This perspective is born of CBRE’s position, primarily as a broker company. Each of CBRE’s brokers operates as an independent data centre specialist in their own countries.
“Thanks to that we have people who know the local market, obviously in terms of real estate market but also of all the providers that are needed during the life of a data centre and all the legislation which applies,” Bravard says. “Our strength is to be able to understand the strategy of our customers at a global level, giving us the necessary insight to implement that strategy at a local level. You are like an entrepreneur running a company inside a company.”
That freedom is important for a company serving such a wide spread of international markets.
CBRE’s management gives each operational team the freedom to implement new types of services and ways of working to adapt to the needs of a fast-changing industry.
As Bravard points out, to expand in Western Europe you need a presence in many different countries, each with their own cultures and regulatory frameworks.
“It is difficult to expand in all these countries at once because they are all different and even multinational companies do not have enough human resources to address them all at once,” Bravard says. “During these last few years, data centre operators grew in Europe by acquiring other European data centre operators, but now, because of the explosion in the industry, data centre operators have to grow organically. To do that, we are given the liberty to conduct business how we see fit because you do not do business the same way in the UK, Italy, or Germany. It makes us a global company with local knowledge.”
Following the Demand
The market has certainly been active in recent years. Bravard began working in the data centre sector in 2018, when the market was not yet what it is today.
“What we needed was to invest,” Bravard recalls. “When you see a possibility, you have to allocate resources to be a part of it. We started the data centre business line in France in 2018, when the market was not as active as it was today. But even then, CBRE as a whole, from local teams to the top management in France, Europe, and the US, were willing to allocate the necessary resources to support the project. They were saying ‘We believe in what you are doing and there is a future in this market.”
Soon enough, that investment paid off.
“There was much less demand, and then after Covid, the market exploded,” Bravard recalls. “With the new requirements demanded by AI, the market is due to grow even further. The question I set to figure out was ‘How would I get in touch with these big players like Amazon and Microsoft?’ I quickly found that CBRE opens doors, thanks to the reputation its data centre teams had established in the US and Europe via London over more than 20 years.”
But more than being a recognisable name that could open doors, Bravard found that CBRE was a network of dedicated people from around the world. More than a list of useful contacts, he found that it was a valuable learning resource.
“I have learned a lot from those members around the world,” he recalls. “Even now, we have possibilities no other competitor has. At CBRE there is a culture which makes you feel part of a big family. CBRE gives its people support and a lot of liberty in terms of how to run their business. We have worldwide leadership in real estate and data centres, supported by a deep understanding of the market that allows us to implement data centre projects for everyone from first-class data centre players to local actors.”
While there is no denying the market is following a steep growth now, CBRE is already looking at where the market could be going next.
“We are trying to be ahead of the market,” Bravard states. “At the moment we are working on data centre opportunities dedicated to cloud applications, but we are also looking at what will be next. We are brainstorming, with our customers and internally, on what new requirements, specifications, and solutions will be necessary. That is why we are part of local data centre associations where we can share our clients’ view of the market with the industry. We educate people internally and outside of CBRE, especially with local administration and in the States. At CBRE we try to be as updated as possible on what is happening in the market while maintaining the broadest view of the sector.”
