Hilti and Data Centers: Construction Engineering Enters the Digital Infrastructure
The Italian data center market is entering a phase of structural expansion, and around this growth, a supply chain of providers is forming that goes beyond traditional IT operators. The interest in the sector in Italy, particularly in the Milan area, is now well-established, as confirmed by the recent Italian stop of Data Center Nation, hosted in the city. Among the companies present was Hilti, a group specialized in technological solutions for construction and infrastructure.
To define the context, we can look at the numbers from the Italian Datacenter Association (IDA) regarding the state of data centers in Italy. After 287 MW installed in 2024, capacity is expected to exceed 1.2 GW by 2028 and approach 2 GW by 2031. The push comes from hyperscalers and the demand related to cloud and AI, with Milan confirmed as a central hub alongside new emerging poles. It is a sector with high capital intensity, with about 21.8 billion euros in investments projected over the next five years, peaking annually near 5 billion.
A Modular Structure for High-Density Infrastructure
In this scenario, Hilti has presented the Structural Ceiling Grid, a ceiling solution specifically designed for data center environments, accompanied by firestop technologies for passive fire protection, including the CFS MSL system. The approach is engineered and modular: the prefabricated systems are meant to support critical infrastructures such as ICT cabling, mechanical and electrical systems, and cooling systems, reducing installation times and costs while allowing room for future upgrades and reconfigurations.
On the numbers side, Hilti claims that the Structural Ceiling Grid allows for up to 40% more load capacity, a significant figure for technologies such as liquid cooling, a 20% reduction in installation times due to the elimination of more complex substructures, and a 57% decrease in CO2 emissions related to materials and processes. The proposal integrates digital design in a BIM (Building Information Modeling) environment and services covering the entire lifecycle of the facility, from design to operational management, with a declared continuity horizon of over 25 years.
For the company, this operation marks an entry into a concentrated and competitive market, where a group historically linked to construction tries to reposition itself as a supplier of the digital economy.
"The expansion of data centers is not just a technological trend but a catalyst for transformation for a part of the construction sector. Operators who can evolve toward specialized skills, from advanced design to new construction methods, energy efficiency, and management of critical infrastructures, will redefine their role, becoming strategic partners of the digital economy," emphasizes Veronica Pirovano, Sales Director of Hilti Italy.
The Issue of Seismic Resilience
Alongside performance issues, the event focused on the structural resilience of facilities. Federico Sponza, Energy & Industry Segment Manager of Hilti Southern Europe, in a speech dedicated to the design challenges of data centers, emphasized the non-structural elements, often overlooked but crucial for service continuity.
"In seismic environments, the most critical level of a data center is often the most underestimated. When an anomaly occurs, particularly during a seismic event, it is rarely the main structure that fails first: it is the elements connected to it that prove vulnerable. And in a data center, this does not just translate into material damage, but into significant operational interruptions," explained Sponza.
It is on this terrain that Hilti tries to build its proposal, bringing along the supply chain, from the design table to execution on site, skills previously foreign to the data center world. For a supplier rooted in construction, entering a sector dominated by digital infrastructure specialists is a gamble that the construction phase and structural safety will become as competitive a factor as computing density.