Internet

The data center market is in the midst of an unprecedented shift that started—publicly at least—five years ago with the announced moratoria on new development in Singapore and Frankfurt. Those regulatory interventions highlighted the challenges the industry faces in securing sufficient power.

Since then, it turned out that data centers would need much more power than had been realized—just at a time when regulators and community organizations were growing increasingly critical of the sector's existing demand.

Our Data Center Research Service estimates that, as of 2024, colocation operators in the top ten data center markets by MW consume about 13 gigawatts (GW) of power.

That's enough power to generate electricity for roughly 10 million homes—or, in this case, only about 1,000 commercial data centers!

Sylvie LaPerrière, one of TeleGeography's esteemed partners, is a known tech leader in the digital infrastructure community.

You might specifically know of her work as a team lead for Google's subsea cable Equiano along the Western Coast of Africa. Or perhaps you know her as a renowned internet governance advocate and interconnection strategist. 

We're so glad to welcome her decades of expertise to TeleGeography's Preferred Partners program. (This network of telecom professionals is like a telecom A-team ready to apply TG data to new and unique research projects. We're thrilled to take on new opportunities with them.)

Sylvie was kind enough to speak with our team about her take on the industry, advocating for women in telecom, and setting up her own consulting shop. Read our conversation below.