Neil Scrivener, Global Account Manager, Data Centres at Chubb Fire & Security

Fire and security integrators need to upscale their ability to deliver systems and solutions to match the accelerated build programmes of data centres. The data centres market is among the fastest growing real estate sub-sectors in the world, driven by increasing levels of technology deployment across the globe and the accompanying need for processing and storing data. According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the total investment in data centres is expected to increase from $ 244.74 billion in 2019 to $ 432.14 billion in 2025.

The housing of such vast amounts of data cannot be managed by the current number of data centres and therefore mass construction can be expected worldwide. The construction of these data centres and their ongoing protection is crucial to global growth; fire and security suppliers like Chubb have an important role to play in providing the businesses involved in their development and management with reliable solutions and services.

For many of the biggest players in the data centre market, including those hosting colocation data centres and the international cloud players, partnership with a security provider rarely hinges on providing innovation in the types of products used. Why? Because the design of the data centre, and the needs of customers, calls for the use of specific technologies, and for the formula to be duplicated across data centres worldwide. Therefore, providing security for a data centre is less an issue of developing a product or range of products. Instead, it is about ensuring one has the engineers skilled in the integration and maintenance of specific product ranges, coupled with the global footprint to service and consult on data centre projects in different jurisdictions.

This premise supports our conviction that growth in the fire and security market is reliant on a combination of global scale and local reach. This means having a network of truly local services across multiple regions, supported by an international business with years of expertise.

One example of this global reach and local service in practice is Chubb’s work in Asia Pacific, providing regional account management for one of the world’s leading cloud providers. Not only have we been able to provide end-to-end regional project management through a single contact, allowing for improved communications with customer stakeholders, but the regional infrastructure to support the customer’s projects means we have been well-placed to scale up the relationship and support them as they’ve grown. Our global and regional account management structure has allowed for consistent bid preparation, opportunity consultations and contract negotiation, creating a centre of excellence. It has also provided efficient knowledge transfer across the region, with minimal customer involvement. The Chubb team understands the demands of the sector, is knowledgeable of the different cultures and languages; and has hands-on experience with the solutions in scope.

In conclusion, it is now essential that fire and security partners can provide the scale and global presence to move with a sector that will experience exponential growth in the coming years and to match the enormous demands for data worldwide. We look forward to growing with it.