Data Centre Security: Protecting Infrastructure from Physical and Cyber Threats

Arista Networks adds AI security to SD-WAN platform

Arista Networks, a provider of cloud and AI networking systems, has introduced Edge Threat Management (ETM) for its VeloCloud SD-WAN platform, adding integrated zero-trust security capabilities for enterprise branch networks. The software is designed to combine SD-WAN connectivity and security within a single platform, reducing the need for separate firewall appliances at branch locations. According to Arista, ETM provides firewalling, threat prevention, zone-based segmentation, Geo-IP filtering, DNS filtering, and AI-assisted policy management through the VeloCloud Orchestrator. The platform also incorporates Arista AVA, which provides AI-assisted features including policy explanation and traffic simulation to help administrators understand and manage security policies. Integrated security for branch networks The new software is intended to provide a unified approach to branch security by combining network management and security policy enforcement within a common operating system and management interface. Till Bockenheimer from German MSP T&A SYSTEME, says, "The new ETM functionality allows us to offer requested security services on top of the existing SD-WAN infrastructure managed within the same GUI. This eliminates the need to deploy a separate firewall box managed from a separate GUI, especially for small branches." Edward Fox, Chief Technology Officer at MetTel, states, "The network edge must evolve to be smarter and more autonomous as our clients expand their AI-driven operations from reactive troubleshooting to predictive management." John McCool, Senior Vice President at Arista Networks, comments, "The new zero-trust integrated security with ETM, developed organically by Arista, showcases the power of the combined Arista and VeloCloud teams on the anniversary of the VeloCloud acquisition. Customers can now simplify and unify the branch, extending enterprise-grade zero trust security to the branch office WAN edge." Arista says ETM will be available for all current VeloCloud hardware and virtual edge platforms, with general availability scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026. For more from Arista, click here.

Aon expands data centre insurance programme to $5bn

Aon, a London-headquartered global professional services firm, has expanded its Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Program (DCLP), increasing available insurance capacity to $5 billion (£3.7 billion) and broadening the range of risk management services available to support data centre developments from construction through to long-term operation. The programme is intended to provide insurance and advisory support for digital infrastructure projects as investment in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and hyperscale data centres continues to grow. Joe Peiser, CEO of Risk Capital at Aon, says, "Digital infrastructure has become one of the most important and capital-intensive asset classes in the global economy. "As clients build larger and more complex data centre portfolios, they need access to greater insurance capacity alongside solutions that strengthen resilience throughout the asset lifecycle. "Expanding DCLP to $5 billion demonstrates our ability to help clients access capital, manage risk, and scale with confidence." Broader risk management throughout the asset lifecycle The enhanced programme provides up to $5 billion in Construction All Risks (CAR), Delay in Start-Up (DSU), Property Damage, and Business Interruption cover through a panel of A-rated insurers from Lloyd's and company markets, alongside other insurance facilities. It also includes expanded liability, cyber, and project cargo cover, offering up to $200 million (£148 million) in third-party liability outside the US, $100 million (£74 million) within the US, $400 million (£297 million) in cyber and technology errors and omissions cover, $500 million (£371 million) in project cargo cover, and up to $1 billion (£743 million) in terrorism cover through existing Aon facilities. In addition, Aon has expanded its advisory services through Aon Global Risk Consulting, including climate risk advice, environmental risk management, Owners Protective Professional Indemnity (OPPI), security risk consulting, risk engineering, and operational resilience expertise. The expansion builds on previous updates to the programme, which increased insurance capacity to $3.5 billion (£2.6 billion) and extended support for operational data centres.

GigaCloud, Cubbit partner on sovereign cloud storage

GigaCloud, a Ukrainian cloud services provider, and Cubbit, an Italian provider of geo-distributed cloud storage infrastructure, have formed a partnership to provide sovereign, geo-distributed cloud storage services for organisations in Ukraine and Poland. Organisations in the two countries currently face an increasingly demanding risk landscape, where ransomware and cyberattacks remain a persistent threat. Armed conflicts make data centre facilities extremely susceptible to physical disruptions. Throughout recent years, missile strikes and attacks on critical infrastructure have demonstrated that no single site can be considered safe. If a facility goes offline, organisations lose access to critical systems and productivity halts. At the same time, companies must comply with an ever-stricter legislative framework - from GDPR to regional laws - whilst keeping sensitive and strategic data under their direct control, operated within defined geographic boundaries. For enterprises, government institutions, and critical infrastructure operators, storage that is resilient, sovereign, and distributed across multiple trusted cross-country sites has become a requirement. As such, the agreement will see GigaCloud deploy Cubbit's software-defined object storage platform, DS3 Composer, across five data centres in Kyiv, Lviv, and Warsaw. The companies say the platform is intended to improve resilience whilst helping organisations meet data sovereignty and regulatory requirements. The storage platform encrypts, fragments, and distributes data across multiple locations, allowing organisations to define where their data is stored, including within Ukraine, within Poland, or across both countries. The service also provides S3-compatible object storage for applications including backup, disaster recovery, long-term archiving, and management of unstructured data. Supporting data resilience across multiple locations Stefano Onofri, co-CEO and co-founder of Cubbit, says, "We are proud to bring our technology to Ukraine and support the country at a moment when the resilience of digital infrastructure has never mattered more. "GigaCloud is firmly rooted in the local market - trusted by government institutions and critical infrastructure operators - and brings deep technical expertise. "Together, we are giving Ukrainian and Polish organisations something new to these regions: a geo-distributed storage infrastructure that keeps strategic data protected and always available, distributed across multiple trusted countries by design, so that even in the most demanding conditions, data remains online and in the hands of those who own it." The service will target mid-sized and enterprise organisations, including government, defence, financial services, media, retail, and IT sectors, where resilient data storage and rapid recovery are operational priorities. Nazariy Kurochko (pictured above), CEO of GigaCloud, explains, "Cloud infrastructure in our region can’t be built around assumptions borrowed from calmer markets. Our businesses have learned to think differently: to plan for uncertainty, to value control, and to choose architectures that remain dependable when circumstances change. "This partnership with Cubbit helps us turn that experience into a practical storage model for organisations that need not just capacity, but confidence. For us, it is also a step towards strengthening a European cloud ecosystem where resilience, sovereignty, and a technology-agnostic approach are built into the foundation." For more from Cubbit, click here.

Why network resilience now depends on control​

In this exclusive article for DCNN, Ramtin Rampour (pictured above), Principal Solutions Architect at Opengear, explains why independent management access is becoming an essential element of network resilience as data centre environments grow larger, more distributed, and increasingly complex: Building resilience beyond the production network With data centres supporting ever higher-density workloads and users increasingly expecting the services they use to be available at all times, network resilience is a fundamental priority for operators responsible for keeping critical infrastructure running. Resilience is no longer just about whether infrastructure can withstand disruption; it also depends on whether operations teams can retain control when something goes wrong. As data centre environments become more distributed and security-sensitive, the ability to reach critical systems during failure has become central to recovery. In this context, remote access to networks has become critical. When the network fails, recovery can only begin if teams can still reach the systems they need to fix. A loss of connectivity is no longer only a traffic problem; it can restrict visibility, delay remediation, and leave data centre network teams dependent on the same production environment that is already degraded. For data centre network teams, resilience now depends not only on network availability, but on maintaining a reliable management path when the production network is degraded or unavailable. Redundant links and resilient hardware still have a place in delivering this. However, they cannot guarantee recovery on their own. Teams also need a trusted route into critical infrastructure when the production network is misconfigured, compromised, or unavailable. Without it, a familiar fault that should be routine to resolve can become a prolonged recovery exercise. The control gap This need for control is becoming more urgent as data centre environments grow increasingly complex. Preventing outages remains a strategic priority for owners and operators, even as infrastructure equipment improves. At the same time, modern architectures and external threats continue to introduce risks that must be actively managed. For network teams, the takeaway is clear: component reliability alone does not ensure resilience. Effective recovery planning must also address dependency chains, change-related errors, and potential loss of access. Those dependencies are increasing with AI environments placing heavier demand on traffic inside high-density infrastructure. Edge sites often sit far from specialist engineering teams, whilst hybrid operating models extend the network across owned and hosted environments. Each can lengthen recovery if teams have no independent management path. During an incident, the gap appears at console level. An engineer may understand which change caused the issue, which device needs attention, or which segment should be isolated, but still have no reliable way to act. No amount of bandwidth helps if management access depends on the failed route. This gap is exactly what out-of-band management is designed to address. By providing a dedicated, physically separate network path, it gives operators direct console-level and IP access to critical infrastructure, independent of the production network they may need to repair. Skills, security, and scale Workforce pressure is another factor widening the control gap. In the 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, only 55% of respondents agreed their organisations have the resources needed to address security incidents over the next two to three years. For data centre operators, that shortage has direct consequences. When incidents occur, recovery often depends on the same network teams that manage access and infrastructure availability. If those teams are stretched, site visits take longer and recovery becomes harder to coordinate. Stretched data centre network teams need fewer site visits and more repeatable processes. Automation is valuable but it is not a substitute for reachability. A workflow cannot reboot, reconfigure, or isolate a device it cannot access. For large estates, the access model has to be designed before the recovery process can be trusted. Security adds another constraint. Palo Alto Networks’ 2026 Unit 42 Global Incident Response Report found that identity weaknesses played a material role in almost 90% of investigations, whilst 87% of intrusions involved activity across multiple attack surfaces, including networks. For data centre operators, this is a network resilience issue as much as a security one. When disruption occurs, teams still need a trusted way to reach routers, switches, firewalls, and other critical devices, but that access cannot rely on the same production network that may be degraded or exposed to attacker movement. During a cyberattack, management access has to be both available and governed. Speed without strong authentication creates risk. Tight controls with no practical route into the infrastructure slow recovery. Operators need a path that sits outside production traffic, with clear permissions and logs that stand up to audit. Future-proofing through independent access Future-proofing data centre networks should start with control under imperfect conditions. An independent management plane separates the route used to control infrastructure from the route carrying production traffic. When the main network is down or untrusted, it allows teams to inspect devices, roll back changes, isolate segments, and verify service health remotely. The aim is not to prevent every failure; it is to prevent failures from removing the operator’s ability to respond. This capability is valuable from the outset. New infrastructure often needs to be built and secured before normal production connectivity is ready. In edge or remote sites, local intervention can be slow and expensive. In this context, a separate management path allows teams to bring equipment online, test configurations, and reduce dependence on physical access. Once infrastructure is live, the same path can support daily resilience. Network operations teams can intervene earlier when device health deteriorates and recover services without depending on unstable systems. Against this backdrop, resilience becomes less about emergency improvisation and more about disciplined control built into network operations. Data centre networks will always face disruption from misconfiguration, cyber threats, equipment faults, and external events. For operators, resilience depends on whether they can retain control when those disruptions occur. As data centre estates become larger, more distributed, and harder to secure, resilience will depend on a trusted path back into the infrastructure, whether teams are managing a core facility, an edge site, or hosted environments. That control helps teams recover faster and keep critical services always running. For more from Opengear, click here.

Siemens, Infineon partner on data centre circuit protection

German multinational technology company Siemens and German semiconductor manufacturing company Infineon Technologies have partnered to develop electrical protection technology for data centres, industrial facilities, and battery energy storage systems (BESS). Under the agreement, Infineon will supply silicon carbide (SiC) power modules for use in Siemens's SENTRON 3QD2 semiconductor circuit breakers, designed to improve efficiency, power density, and reliability in power distribution systems. According to the companies, growing electrification and the increasing complexity of AI data centres and industrial operations are driving demand for faster and more reliable electrical protection. A semiconductor circuit breaker, also known as a solid-state circuit breaker, is designed to protect electrical circuits from excessive current caused by faults such as short circuits and overloads. Unlike conventional electromechanical breakers, which use mechanical components to interrupt current flow, semiconductor-based devices use electronic components and control algorithms to react significantly faster. Siemens says the SENTRON 3QD2 can interrupt current in the microsecond range, making it suitable for direct current (DC) power systems where rapid fault isolation is required to minimise downtime and equipment damage. Andreas Weisl, Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer of Industrial and Infrastructure at Infineon, notes, "AI data centres and factories are becoming increasingly electrified and complex. "This increases vulnerability to electrical failures and drives the demand for more sustainable, efficient, and reliable power distribution systems. "By combining our advanced silicon carbide technology with Siemens's expertise in power distribution, we are addressing this demand to ensure fast, safe, and reliable operations in power-critical environments." Growing interest in DC power systems The collaboration centres on Infineon's CoolSiC MOSFET power module, which has been integrated into Siemens's semiconductor circuit breaker platform. The companies say the technology supports the wider adoption of DC power distribution systems, which are gaining attention in industrial environments and data centres because of their potential efficiency benefits and ability to integrate more effectively with battery storage systems. Markus Grabmeier, CEO Electrical Products at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, comments, "Our new direct current portfolio offers innovative solutions that not only improve energy efficiency but also enable the development of resilient, future-proof infrastructure. "Direct current applications can decrease energy consumption and substantially cut material usage. By integrating batteries, peak power can also be significantly reduced. "With this approach, we are making a decisive contribution to the decarbonisation of our industries, while reinforcing our commitment to developing technologies that deliver tangible value to our customers and society." The companies state that the partnership is intended to support the growing requirements of power-critical environments where electrical protection systems must operate quickly and reliably to maintain availability and reduce the risk of service disruption. A demonstration of the SENTRON 3QD2 semiconductor circuit breaker will be showcased at PCIM Europe 2026 in Nuremberg, Germany, from 9–11 June. For more from Siemens, click here.

Red Sift finds top US DCs lack email security protections

As cyber threats increasingly target critical infrastructure, a new analysis from Red Sift, a London-based cybersecurity firm specialising in AI-powered email security and digital brand protection, reveals significant email security gaps among the largest data centre operators in the United States. Despite underpinning the nation’s digital economy, an alarming 27% of the top 100 US data centres lack effective email authentication enforcement, leaving them vulnerable to domain spoofing and phishing attacks. The review examined the top 100 US data centres, analysing their implementation of key email security standards such as DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance), which is designed to prevent attackers from impersonating trusted domains. Key findings include: • 27% of data centres operate with weak or no enforcement (email security policies set to “none” or not configured), creating a major spoofing vulnerability across critical infrastructure. • 10% of analysed organisations have no DMARC record at all, representing the highest-risk category for impersonation-based attacks. • BIMI adoption remains extremely low at just 6%, meaning 94% of data centre brands lack visual verification in inboxes, significantly increasing the risk of brand impersonation. An urgent need for stronger protections These gaps are especially concerning given the sector’s scale and importance. The United States is home to more than 4,500 active data centres consuming approximately 176 TWh of electricity annually, about 4.4% of total US power use, with over 700 additional facilities under construction across 38 states. Virginia leads the nation with more than 665 facilities, followed by Texas and California. The findings, Red Sift believes, underscore an urgent need for stronger baseline protections across the sector. Even as data centre capacity rapidly expands to meet rising demand from AI and digital services, email security remains an overlooked but critical vulnerability layer, with attackers increasingly exploiting trusted infrastructure domains to gain footholds across interconnected systems. As the backbone of cloud computing, AI, financial systems, and national security infrastructure, data centres represent high-value targets for cybercriminals. Weak email authentication leaves operators, partners, and customers exposed to phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and supply chain attacks that can disrupt operations or compromise sensitive data flows.

Why the inbox is becoming the weakest link in DC security

As AI accelerates demand for digital infrastructure, data centre operators are investing heavily in power, cooling, and resilience. Yet, while the industry focuses on physical infrastructure challenges, one of the most common and effective cyberattack methods remains far more familiar: email. In this exclusive article for DCNN, Billy McDiarmid, VP Customer Engineering at Red Sift, argues that phishing, impersonation, and supply-chain email attacks are becoming an increasingly serious risk for operators managing high-value AI workloads and complex partner ecosystems: Email security The data centre industry is in the middle of an unprecedented expansion that is unleashing economic growth across the United Kingdom, creating more than 43,000 jobs, according to Datum. Still, with AI workloads driving historic demand for power, cooling, and high-density computing, operators are racing to accommodate new capacity. As a result, the UK Government is fast tracking planning approvals, with entire regions repositioning themselves as AI infrastructure hubs through the UK’s AI Growth Zones. Yet, amid this rapid growth, the industry is overlooking a threat that is far more mundane than liquid cooling, grid constraints, or even expansion protests. For all the advancements of modern data centre design, the most common entry point for attackers going after network security is still the inbox. Today, email remains the primary vector for things like phishing, impersonation, and invoice fraud. As AI accelerates both the value of data centre workloads and the sophistication of cyberattacks, the gap between physical resilience and basic things like email security is becoming a critical vulnerability. Modern data centres are complex ecosystems of operators, contractors, equipment vendors, and service partners. Every one of these relationships is mediated through email, and when attackers impersonate a supplier, mimic an executive, or compromise a contractor’s mailbox, they gain a direct path into the operational heart of a facility. A single fraudulent email can trigger misconfigurations, grant unauthorised access, or divert critical payments. These are not hypothetical scenarios; they are the most common form of cyberattack across infrastructure-reliant industries, according to the NCSC. And the threat now extends beyond the inbox. Just last year, attackers created a domain impersonating a logistics platform used by UK freight brokers, causing significant operational disruption and financial losses, with estimates ranging from £40,000 to £160,000 per incident. AI is increasing the sophistication of attacks Now, with the cost of entry for bad actors at near zero, AI is only exacerbating the problem. Attackers can now generate highly convincing phishing messages tailored to specific individuals, roles, or organisations. They can scrape public data to mimic writing styles, automate reconnaissance, and craft messages that bypass traditional filters. Deepfake audio and video add another layer of credibility to fraudulent requests. The result is an environment where even experienced professionals struggle to distinguish legitimate communication from malicious intent. At the same time, the value of what sits inside data centres has never been higher. AI models, training datasets, and proprietary algorithms represent some of the most valuable intellectual property in the world. A breach that once disrupted a handful of virtual machines can now compromise entire AI pipelines. This makes data centre operators and their supply chains irresistible targets. And because email is the easiest and cheapest attack vector to exploit, it is where attackers focus their efforts. Email security must become baseline infrastructure protection The industry has invested heavily in physical security, redundancy, and environmental resilience. Ironically, email security has not kept pace. For the UK, this is not just a corporate hygiene issue; it is about network security and ensuring trust behind the country’s most iconic industries. Enforcing modern email authentication standards, such as email security across data centre operators and their supply chains, must be treated as a baseline security requirement, not an optional control left to individual organisations. Unfortunately, according to a recent analysis at Red Sift, over 39% of the top organisations in the UK are not enforcing DMARC. With foreign threats on the rise, the status quo that viewed email security as 'nice to have' is no longer tenable. It is a real world infrastructure risk, just like locking the front door to the building. If an attacker can impersonate a trusted partner, they can influence operational decisions. If they can compromise a contractor’s account, they can gain access to sensitive systems. And because data centre operations depend on a vast network of suppliers, these standards must extend across the entire ecosystem, not just within the operator’s perimeter. Regulation is pushing security higher up the agenda Recent regulations are starting to move in this direction. The UK Government, as well as those around Europe, are tightening requirements around identity verification, communication security, and supply-chain resilience. It is also pushing forward on the Cyber Security and Resilience bill, an important step in this direction. As AI becomes more central to national infrastructure, these expectations will only grow. Operators who invest early in robust email security will be better positioned to meet emerging compliance demands and to reassure customers that their most sensitive workloads are protected. Enterprises choosing where to host their AI workloads want to know that partners are resilient not only in physical infrastructure but in digital channels as well. The future of data centre resilience depends on recognising that the inbox is not a theoretical risk; it is the front line, just as the security guard out front is. As the AI era accelerates, the industry must build not only bigger and more efficient facilities, but safer and more trustworthy communication systems. Email may be one of the oldest technologies in the digital world, but securing it is one of the most urgent challenges facing the data centre sector today.

'External threats a rising cause of outages for data centres'

External infrastructure failures and outages linked to fibre and connectivity issues are becoming more prominent for data centres, according to new research from the Uptime Institute, a US-based independent data centre standards and certification body. Despite that, on-site outages for data centres have declined for the fifth consecutive year, with approximately one in 10 noting that their last outages had a serious or severe impact. The cost of major outages continued to rise, with 57% stating that their most recent major outage cost over $100,000 (£74,800) and one in five reporting a cost of over $1 million (£748,000). Richard Petrie, CTO of the London Internet Exchange (LINX), comments, “Networking and connectivity continue to sit at the top of the most common causes of IT outages, reinforcing the importance of resilience in this area. "As organisations face growing pressure from network congestion, external threats, and increasing reliance on third-party providers, resilience across both network and data centre infrastructure is becoming critical. "While it’s encouraging to see on-site outages declining as infrastructure providers continue to prioritise resilience, the risks posed by external failures mean organisations still need robust redundancy policies in place for when outages do occur. "The backbone of a strong redundancy strategy is a secondary fabric that allows data to be rerouted during periods of disruption or risk, helping organisations remain operational even when the primary network is compromised. "By providing multiple options to route traffic, organisations can strengthen resilience and help networks stay online.” Power failures a contributing a factor The leading cause of impactful outages was power, with failures involving UPS systems, transfer switches, and generators remaining prominent. Worsening grid constraints and high-density workloads were also found to contribute to outages as a newer challenge. To adapt, the research outlined that operators are adapting investment strategies towards automation and control systems in order to manage complexity, despite acknowledging that more automation can cause different classes of problems. In line with the causes of outages, resilience assessments were found to focus more on internal systems than on external and systemic risks. Andy Lawrence, founding member and Executive Director of Uptime Intelligence, says, “Outages overall have slowed down and, overall, digital infrastructure is remarkably resilient. But further resiliency gains are becoming harder to achieve. “We believe that over time, failures will increasingly not be the result of a single point of failure, but instead be linked to complex interactions between systems, including software, networks, and external dependencies. "While site-based electrical and mechanical infrastructure remain a critical building block that needs to be resilient, digital infrastructure is becoming more distributed with outages originating outside the data centre, including those tied to power availability, network connectivity, or the reliance on external cloud services playing a larger role.”

Gardner Engineering expands data centre security range

Gardner Engineering, a security products manufacturer, has launched a new range of products for data centres, digital infrastructure, and access control environments, as demand for physical resilience in AI and cloud infrastructure continues to grow. The Lancashire-based manufacturer produces precision-machined security mounts, components, and CCTV brackets, and says it is seeing increased demand linked to data infrastructure security. The latest additions include a 3U rack mount access control drawer, designed to house multiple control PCBs within standard 19-inch cabinets. According to the company, the unit is intended to improve cable management and simplify servicing through a sliding access design. Gardner Engineering has also introduced a 6U wall-mounted 19-inch rack enclosure for environments where floor space is limited. The enclosure is designed for the vertical installation of networking, surveillance, and access control hardware. New tools target infrastructure deployment challenges Alongside the hardware launches, Gardner Engineering is expanding its digital sales support with an online product selector and configurator. The tool is already available through the company’s website and is being developed as a white-label platform for distributors and partners. The configurator is intended to help users manage product selection and specification more efficiently, including options such as height, finish, mounting plates, and bespoke requirements. Matt Phillip, CEO of Gardner Engineering, comments, “As digital infrastructure expands, customers are looking for products that solve practical problems around space, organisation, security, and deployment. "Our focus is not just on launching more hardware; it is about making specification easier as well. The white-label configurator is an important step because it gives partners a practical tool they can place directly on their own websites, linked to the Gardner products they actually sell.” The wider Q2 2026 launch programme also includes a surface mount lock cassette kit for Assa Abloy EL160 and EL560 applications, an expanded access control and vehicle posts range, and integrated entrance control bases developed with ZKTeco. Gardner Engineering says the new products reflect growing demand for physical infrastructure that supports resilience, deployment efficiency, and channel integration.

Mitie acquires Nordic data centre security firms

Mitie, a UK facilities management and professional services company, has acquired two fire and security businesses in Denmark and Norway to expand its data centre capabilities across the Nordics. The company has purchased El Team Vest and ABC Elektro for a combined initial cash consideration of £8.1 million, with additional deferred payments linked to performance. The acquisitions are intended to strengthen Mitie’s project delivery and maintenance capabilities in the European data centre fire and security systems market. The group is already active in the sector, supporting clients including Microsoft, Google, and Equinix. El Team Vest, based in Horsens, Denmark, has around 20 years’ experience in electrical design, installation, and maintenance. Its work includes data and fibre networks, fire and security systems, building management systems, and high-voltage electrical connections. Recent projects include electrical retrofit work for Velux, as well as contracting for the headquarters of ABB Group and DSV Logistics. ABC Elektro, based in Horten, Norway, provides fire and security services alongside electrical capabilities such as data connections and building management system installations. The company primarily serves commercial and construction customers in the Oslo region. Nordic expansion driven by data centre growth Demand for data centre capacity continues to grow, driven in part by increased use of AI and machine learning technologies. The Nordic region has become a key location for new developments, supported by renewable energy availability, grid capacity, and cooler operating conditions. Mitie already operates in the Nordic data centre market through its fire and security business, GBE Converge, acquired in 2023. The addition of El Team Vest and ABC Elektro is expected to strengthen its regional presence, with a combined workforce of around 100 employees. El Team Vest will operate as a regional centre of expertise, providing technical and operational support across Mitie’s Nordic activities. For the 12 months to 31 December 2025, El Team Vest reported revenue of £16.6 million and EBITDA of £3.2 million. ABC Elektro reported revenue of £2.7 million over the same period, with break-even EBITDA following investment. Jason Buttle, Managing Director - Fire & Security Projects at Mitie, comments, “The acquisitions of El Team Vest and ABC Elektro strengthen our ability to deliver complex fire, security, and electrical solutions across the Nordics, one of Europe’s most important and fast-growing data centre hubs. "With Mitie’s financial backing and [its] deep technical expertise, strong local reputations, and track records supporting major commercial and technology clients, we expect these businesses to scale up our data centre offering. "We look forward to welcoming their highly skilled colleagues to Mitie as we support our hyperscale and colocation customers in meeting the rapidly increasing demand for data centre capacity.”