SUDLOWS
as the lead consultancy with that single developer . “ We ' re working on some of the biggest projects in India right now , which I am extremely proud of but equally aware of the gravity of what we are doing and the trust put in us by our clients ,” adds John .
In the UAE - a place which John describes as “ heaven for engineers ” where people like him are “ encouraged to dream bigger ” - Sudlows Consulting ’ s largest data centre project has a capacity of 16 MW IT Load . In India , he says , “ we ' re working on 50 MW single buildings as well as campus projects with capacities of 250 MW or higher . And we ' re just one consultancy . There are other successful firms working in the market , there are a lot of new players moving into the market ; despite all this , we just can ' t build sites fast enough to meet demand .” A typical data centre project in India , John explains , is a vertical build of between 6 and 10 floors which progresses from the concept stage to fully operational in between 22 and 26 months . “ At the beginning of that two-year period , the demand is already outstripping the supply . Even if everyone decides to build to meet that present demand , by the time those projects are live two years later , the demand has already grown again ,” he laughs . “ The industry just can ’ t bring new facilities online fast enough .”
The prospect of tackling bigger projects in smaller amounts of time was one that John admits he definitely found exciting . “ Land really is at a premium , so everything is being built at least eight floors tall now and we ' re heading for eleven floors becoming the new standard ,” he explains . “ It can be quite a mind-boggling thing to fit bigger and bigger , denser and denser data centres into these buildings that are getting taller and taller , all while using as little space as possible for all
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