CRITICAL IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE EVOLVING ROLE OF DATA CENTRES

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Data centres are now critical IT infrastructure because they underpin essential UK services where failure has national consequences.

In 2024, the UK government formally designated them as Critical National Infrastructure, raising expectations for resilience, security, and oversight. Meeting CNI standards is now fundamental to service continuity, investment confidence, and long-term success in the UK’s digital economy.

Key insights:

• The UK’s growing dependence on digital services means data centres now underpin national security, healthcare, finance, and emergency services, making failures a societal and economic risk rather than a simple technical issue
• In 2024, the UK government designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure, formally recognising them as nationally significant assets subject to higher resilience, security, and oversight expectations
• This designation raises standards for operators across physical security, cyber resilience, power, cooling, and disaster recovery, with increased government engagement and alignment to new laws and international frameworks
• For businesses and investors, CNI status provides greater assurance of service continuity and data protection, while accelerating investment and making the ability to meet CNI standards a key factor for long-term success

The UK's digital economy runs on infrastructure most organisations take for granted - until it stops working. A payment system failure, cloud disruption, or breach of sensitive data quickly translates into operational, financial, and reputational damage.

Data centres underpin national security, healthcare, financial markets, and emergency services, and when these systems fail, the consequences extend far beyond inconvenience. This growing dependence on cloud platforms, the concentration of digital services in fewer facilities, and rising cyber, geopolitical, and climate-related risks have increasingly challenged national resilience.

That's why, in 2024, the UK government formally designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) - a decision that reshaped the regulatory, operational, and engineering requirements for the entire sector.

This article examines what critical IT infrastructure means, why data centres are central to its operation, and what the CNI designation means for operators, businesses, and the future of the UK’s digital landscape.

What is critical IT infrastructure?

Critical IT infrastructure comprises the digital systems, networks, and facilities essential to national security, economic stability, and public services. Unlike standard IT systems, which support routine business operations, IT critical infrastructure forms the backbone of entire sectors.

This includes the networks that coordinate emergency services, the systems that process billions of pounds in financial transactions daily, and the digital platforms that deliver healthcare services across the country. Disruption to these systems has far-reaching, societal impacts - not just organisational inconvenience.

The distinction between each matters - ordinary IT systems can tolerate downtime; critical IT infrastructure cannot. Failures here threaten national security, derail essential services, and can cause substantial economic impact. That’s why resilience, security, and continuity are non-negotiable fundamentals of data centre critical infrastructure.

Key components of IT critical infrastructure

IT critical infrastructure relies on several interconnected systems, each designed to ensure continuous, secure operation under all conditions.

• Servers, storage, and key platforms form the operational backbone, running the applications, databases, and workloads that organisations and essential services rely on. Without resilient compute and storage systems, core services cannot function.
• Networks and connectivity link systems, users, and data with high-speed, low-latency connections, ensuring flawless operation across the facility.
• Power and energy resilience keep facilities running during grid failures or supply disruptions. Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units, standby generators, and redundant power feeds protect against outages that could halt operations.
• Cooling and environmental systems manage heat and humidity, safeguarding servers, storage, and networking equipment. Effective air or liquid cooling ensures high-density racks and critical workloads operate safely and efficiently.
• Physical security systems control access, monitor activity, and protect facilities from unauthorised entry or physical attack. These measures safeguard both the infrastructure itself and the sensitive data it processes.
• Cybersecurity and data protection guard against increasingly sophisticated modern threats, from ransomware to state-sponsored attacks. Multi-layered defences, continuous monitoring, and strict access controls are essential to maintain system integrity.
• Monitoring, redundancy, and disaster recovery provide oversight and resilience. Real-time monitoring platforms track performance and environmental conditions, while backup systems and geographically distributed infrastructure ensure operations continue if a failure occurs.

These components don't operate in isolation. Effective critical IT infrastructure requires careful coordination across power, cooling, security, and network systems - ensuring the facility can operate safely, reliably, and continuously.

The role of UK data centres as critical infrastructure

UK data centres now sit at the core of how essential digital services are delivered. By bringing large volumes of compute, storage, and connectivity together in single facilities, they enable and support services that must remain available at all times.

Government platforms, financial systems, healthcare services, and emergency communications increasingly run from shared data centre environments rather than standalone IT systems. As organisations have moved workloads into fewer, larger sites and cloud platforms, the importance of each individual facility has grown. The performance of a single data centre can now directly affect multiple organisations and services at once.

This shift changes the nature of risk. Issues with power, cooling, network capacity, or security are no longer isolated technical problems. A single failure can disrupt multiple services across different sectors, with wider economic and social consequences.

As a result, UK data centres function as critical national assets. Their location, design, and operation directly affect service availability, data security, and national resilience. To meet these demands, facilities must be built for continuous uptime, protected against physical and cyber threats, and able to continue operating during extreme or unexpected conditions.

Data centres are no longer supporting infrastructure; they're essential to the stability of the UK’s digital economy. As such, they must be planned, engineered, and protected accordingly.

Government announces UK data centres to be designated critical infrastructure

In September 2024, the UK government formally designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure. The announcement marked a regulatory turning point - not because it changed what data centres do, but because it changed what they are legally and operationally required to be.

Since being designated as CNI, data centre critical infrastructure has been repositioned alongside energy grids, water systems, and transport networks - sectors where resilience, security, and government oversight have been the norm for decades.

For data centre operators, the shift in status was clear: facilities that were once regulated primarily as commercial buildings are now explicitly recognised by the government as nationally significant assets.

Industry frameworks and commercial best practice remain in place, but they are now reinforced by incrementally increasing levels of government oversight and security requirements introduced over time.

For operators, this marks a steady move away from purely self-defined resilience benchmarks towards closer alignment with nationally defined expectations. Risk assessment, assurance, and reporting processes are being strengthened in stages, building on existing operating models rather than replacing them.

For customers, the change is less about immediate disruption and more about greater clarity and confidence. Expectations around resilience, security, and continuity are becoming more explicit, with greater transparency and clearer evidence increasingly required during procurement, insurance, and compliance processes.

Implications for data centre operators and businesses

The CNI designation has raised the bar for UK data centres. Operators now carry greater responsibility - not just for clients, but for national security. This covers physical security, cyber defences, and operational resilience, with standards for design and operations tightened across the board.

A major benefit is closer engagement with the government. A dedicated CNI data infrastructure team, made up of senior officials, monitors threats and anticipates risks.

Operators gain prioritised access to agencies such as the National Cyber Security Centre, and in critical incidents (cyber-attacks, IT outages, or extreme weather), the government coordinates emergency responses to minimise disruption and ensure rapid recovery.

The designation also comes with clear compliance requirements. New laws, like the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, mandate providers to protect supply chains and strengthen cyber defences. Operators may also need to align with international standards like NIS2 and the Cyber Resilience Act.

Physical infrastructure is also under closer scrutiny, from fire safety engineering to flood-risk planning, and high-risk vendor restrictions now apply to CNI sites.

For businesses, the designation provides assurance over service continuity, data security, and supply chain resilience. Critical services such as NHS records and financial systems benefit from heightened protection, while transparency and reporting obligations give clients confidence that providers meet national standards.

CNI status also impacts investment. It boosts confidence in the UK market, supports planning and utility access, and can unlock large-scale projects.

Compliance with higher security standards may increase operational costs, particularly for smaller operators, but it also offers a competitive advantage for those embracing the framework.

At RED, we see this as an opportunity to raise standards. Designing secure, resilient, and sustainable data centres is what we do - and CNI designation makes it even more important than ever.

The impact on the data centre industry since 2024

Since being designated as CNI, UK data centre disruption is increasingly viewed as a potential national security risk rather than a purely commercial issue.

The designation has accelerated higher and more consistent standards across the industry. Expectations around security, resilience, and governance have increased, supported by legislation such as the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and closer alignment with international frameworks, including NIS2. This has reinforced a shift towards more formalised risk management and accountability at both design and operational levels.

Government engagement has become more prominent, with dedicated CNI teams monitoring risk, prioritised access to the National Cyber Security Centre, and coordinated responses for cyber, operational, and environmental incidents. Physical infrastructure is also under closer scrutiny, particularly in relation to fire safety, flood risk, and high-risk vendors.

Investment and planning priorities have shifted as a result. Operators are upgrading power, cooling, and security systems, while CNI status has strengthened investor confidence and supported the delivery of large-scale developments. For customers, the changes provide greater assurance around service continuity, data security, and supply chain resilience.

As data centres assume a clearly national importance, the capability to design, operate, and evolve facilities to CNI standards will become a defining factor for long-term success.

RED Engineering has spent two decades designing data centres that meet the most demanding operational, security, and sustainability requirements. The principles that have guided our work, rigorous engineering, integrated systems design, and a commitment to long-term resilience, are now more relevant than ever.

Contact RED today to discuss how we can help you design, build, or optimise data centre infrastructure that meets critical national infrastructure standards and supports your organisation's long-term success.