Scaling Data Centres for AI and High-Performance Computing: Building Smarter, Resilient Infrastructure

This panel featuring Peter Hind (Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT),  Peter Alexander (CTO, Defence Digital Group at the Department of Defence), Matt Gurr (Senior Director of Design Management APAC at NTT Global Data Centres, formerly AECOM, AWS, Aurecon) and Adam Gardner (Head of Products at NEXTDC), discuss the growing difficulty of planning and scaling data centres amid rising demand, especially from AI. Matt points out the shift from long-term infrastructure planning to much shorter timeframes, due to the four-year lifecycle of data centre development and rapidly changing requirements like water-cooled racks and AI-heavy loads. Flexibility and modularity now take precedence over fixed infrastructure. As AI and high-density workloads drive infrastructure demand, ADAPT data suggests that 25% of organisations are now repatriating workloads from public to private or hybrid cloud, seeking better cost control, compliance, and operational efficiency. This shift increases complexity, requiring modular infrastructure, architectural interoperability, and tighter alignment with…