Not Your Father’s Data Center: The Ins and Outs of Financing Digital Infrastructure

Digital infrastructure is a common term in the data center industry, but it wasn’t always. So, how did the industry evolve to the notion that technology is infrastructure? It’s been a long journey, buoyed by investment.

To talk about the financial aspect of data centers, host Raymond Hawkins spoke with Irtiaz Ahmad, Head of Global Data Center Banking at Barclays. Ahmed has spent the last 15 years focused on the industry as an advisor, investor and operator. Prior to Barclays, he spent time at CitiGroup and Waller Capital Partners, watching the world of technology accelerate and change.

“We started to see the need for digital infrastructure based on fiber picking up steam about a decade ago,” Ahmad said. “But, really, you can trace the infrastructure that we depend on today to keep us connected back to telecom in the early 1900s.”

The connectivity that everyone enjoys today didn’t just come to be in the modern era, and investment fueled it. To talk about the evolution, Ahmad started with the origins of data centers.

“They started off as hosting services for websites. Then, data centers started to change their approach to be connection hubs. In the funding realm, the beginning phases looked at investments in three buckets: technology, real estate, or communication,” he explained.

The convergence of these three didn’t happen until about 10 years ago, when the cloud became the new environment. This led to more investment and new providers popping up.

However, as Ahmad noted, “the real convergence of the three buckets happened about five years ago and added a fourth—infrastructure.”

Where the world is now is the realization that technology is infrastructure, much like roads, airports and other traditional elements are. What’s next for the data center investment ecosystem?

“The next investment is the edge, which has mainstream traction now. We’re in the discovery process of now, as we were with the cloud before, and thinking, ‘What can we do with it?’,” Ahmad said.

Get more insights from Ahmad on data center investments by listening to the episode.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

cardiac care
Just Thinking… About the Role of Critical Thinking in Cardiac Care With Dr. Minh Tran
July 14, 2025

As cardiovascular disease continues to rank as the leading cause of death globally, the importance of expert cardiac care has never been more evident. The American Heart Association reports that over 800,000 Americans experience a heart attack each year, and many rely on the fast, critical thinking of cardiac specialists to survive. In an…

Read More
IP radios
Icom’s IP Radios Fill Critical Gaps in Privacy, Range, and Cost for Commercial Fishermen
July 11, 2025

Hamvention 2025 served as a platform for exploring how advanced radio technologies are supporting specialized industries. Secure and far-reaching communication remains a critical need for the commercial fishing sector. Rick Waedekin, the President of Coast Marine Marketing and Icom’s West Coast Sales Rep, spoke with Harold Whittlesy of Satellite Technical Services about the growing…

Read More
DXpedition
Icom Powers 3Y0K : Ham Radio’s Most Ambitious DXpedition to Remote Bouvet Island Part 1
July 11, 2025

Bouvet Island sits at the edge of the world. It is frozen, uninhabited, and almost impossible to access. Fewer people have set foot there than in space. That level of remoteness is exactly what makes it so valuable to amateur radio operators. The island ranks tenth on ClubLog’s list of Most Wanted DXCC entities,…

Read More
entrepreneurial success
The Hidden Key to Entrepreneurial Success: Build Momentum Through Personal Branding and Authentic Networking
July 10, 2025

What if the biggest pivot of your career started with a conversation?  In this episode of Professional Quotient, host Jason Winningham welcomes Fanny Dunagan, CEO and Content Strategist of PathLynks, LLC. Fanny shares her journey from high-pressure consulting in Singapore to founding her own media and branding company — and why learning to network…

Read More