Key Insights at the 2024 DataCenter Forum in Bucharest: The AI Context and the Potential of the Local Landscape

PAC participated in the 2024 DataCenter Forum in Bucharest, organized by Tema Energy. This event highlighted current operational challenges and the impact of AI, starting from the infrastructure field to the entire industry ecosystem. The event attracted various industry stakeholders, including leading equipment manufacturers, established data center operators, and representatives from the IT and public sectors. This broad participation ensured a comprehensive exchange of ideas and fostered valuable networking opportunities. 

The event featured the founder of ClusterPower,  the first data center in Southeast Europe to receive Uptime Institute Tier III certification. This hyper-scalable facility boasts impressive global connectivity; it is the first data center with AI capabilities in Romania and is linked to 750 data centers worldwide. ClusterPower has ambitious plans for the future, aiming to reach 200 MW of power capacity and expand to five data centers by 2025. Also, this year, Orange obtained Tier III Design certification for the data center in Cluj Napoca, being the first Romanian telecommunications operator to earn this distinction.

From the public sector perspective, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) showcased its innovative digital project, MAI HUB, incorporating a modern data center. This citizen-centric portal streamlines access to essential public services, including criminal record certificates, traffic violation history, and permits for urban planning, land development, and construction/demolition activities. Notably, the portal achieved impressive user adoption, exceeding 6 million accesses within its first year of operation, demonstrating its significant impact on public sector efficiency and citizen convenience.  

Romania can develop the data center sector and become an important regional hub by leveraging assets like readily available and cost-effective energy supplies coupled with a qualified workforce. However, the path forward is not without challenges. Key stakeholders face issues like bureaucracy and the fragmented nature of the industry. An example of good practices was the Polish Data Center Association, which demonstrates how collective action can enhance bargaining power within the field.

The event centered on general industry challenges, including data center energy consumption. Existing DCs cannot host AI due to cooling demands. The new systems should be designed with the necessary capacity and physical space to support liquid cooling and efficiently dissipate the heat generated by GPUs. Discussions addressed innovative cooling solutions, such as liquid-based systems, which are of tremendous importance for modern data centers that use GPUs instead of the traditional CPU.

PAC considers these events essential drivers of growth in the local and regional markets, fostering cooperation in increasing not only for the data center sector but for the entire digital ecosystem, particularly given the current surge of interest in artificial intelligence.