Data consumption: the new square meter?

When an organization looks for new office space, the same questions always come up first. How many employees do you have? How many workstations are needed? How many square meters are you looking for? These are logical questions, and they largely determine the search.

But in an increasingly digital economy, according to IT-Label, there is another question that is rarely asked yet: how much data does your organization actually consume? That question sounds technical, while it is really just about use. Just as square meters say something about how many people fit in a space, data consumption says something about how heavily an organization digitally loads a building.

In this article we explain what data consumption is, why it varies so much per tenant, and why this is a good question to ask right now, in the early phase of the AI transition.

What is data consumption exactly?

Data consumption is more than just the amount of data an organization downloads or uploads. It refers more broadly to the digital load created because employees, devices, applications and systems continuously connect to the internet, cloud environments and other digital infrastructure throughout the workday.

Think of video calls, Microsoft 365 and other cloud applications, sending files, cloud backups, VoIP, streaming, security cameras, access control, sensors, IoT and software updates. And AI applications are increasingly being added to this list. All these flows together form the digital footprint of an organization within a building.

As a result, alongside a physical usage profile, how many people, how many workstations, how many square meters, organizations increasingly also have a digital usage profile. That profile largely determines whether a location fits the way a company works.

50 employees are not always 50 identical users

Data consumption varies greatly per tenant. An accounting firm with 50 employees can have a completely different digital profile than an architecture firm with 50 employees exchanging large 3D models. A call center has different requirements than a law firm. A software company, media company or AI start-up can again have a completely different profile.

The number of employees alone therefore says less and less about what an organization digitally needs. Two tenants may both be looking for 500 m² of office space, and yet need two completely different buildings digitally.

It is not just the total amount of data that matters. The timing of when capacity is needed, how many users are active simultaneously, how many devices are connected, how much is uploaded versus downloaded and how critical a stable connection is to business operations all play a role. Anyone wanting to understand why a single connection is sometimes not enough will find more background in our article about redundancy.

Importantly: higher data consumption does not automatically mean a building is unsuitable. It is precisely about the balance between need and available infrastructure.

A building can be a perfect digital fit for one organization and completely inadequate for another, without a single square meter changing.

And then AI arrived

We are still in a relatively early phase of AI adoption within organizations. Many companies are currently experimenting with AI assistants and individual applications. The expectation is that AI will become increasingly integrated into existing software, business processes, communication, analysis, design, automation and building technology.

We deliberately make no firm predictions about exactly how much additional data traffic AI will cause. The effect depends heavily on the application: some AI computations take place locally, others in data centers or cloud environments. The relevant development for real estate is therefore broader: organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure.

Cloud, AI, IoT and connected devices are making connectivity an increasingly integral part of core business operations. That raises a logical question: if the digital use of organizations is changing, shouldn't we also better understand what a building can digitally facilitate? For anyone wondering whether our buildings are ready for the AI revolution, that is the core issue.

IT-Label does not intend to create a problem that does not yet exist. It is about raising awareness in the early phase of the AI transition. We do not need to wait until digital capacity becomes a limitation before thinking about it.

From data consumption to real estate needs

The parallel with energy is illuminating. A building can have a certain energy supply, while each user has a different energy profile. In the same way, a building has a certain digital infrastructure, while each tenant has a different digital usage profile. How energy and IT relate to each other is explained in two foundations of modern real estate.

That is why an IT label should not only communicate what is technically present, but above all help people understand what that means for use. A tenant does not need to become a network engineer. A real estate advisor does not need to know all the specifications of fiber optics, network architecture and redundancy by heart.

The technology must be translated into understandable information. That is exactly the bridge the IT label wants to build between what happens under the floor and in the utility room, and what a user notices from that on a daily basis.

The link with the IT labels

The IT label translates the digital quality of a building into six classifications. They range from a fully equipped ecosystem to a building in which the user determines the digital setup.

• IT1+ PREMIUM: fully digital ecosystem.
• IT1 HIGH PERFORMANCE: high-quality digital infrastructure.
• IT2 PLUG & PLAY: strong digital foundation.
• IT3 READY: basic facilities present.
• IT4 CORE: primarily a digital connection point.
• IT5 SHELL: digital setup largely left to the user.

These labels are not meant to say that IT1 is good and IT5 is bad. An IT5 SHELL building can be an excellent fit for a tenant who wants complete freedom over their own IT infrastructure. Another organization might want to be able to start tomorrow with a hundred employees and is therefore looking for a high digital delivery level.

The relevant question is therefore not which label scores highest, but: does the digital delivery level of the building match the digital usage profile of the tenant? That a building can have a high classification while a specific floor is deliberately delivered as shell space is shown in this example. That is where IT-Label's translation work comes in.

From m² to understandable language

IT-Label does not want tenants to have to study complicated technical tables during a viewing. On the contrary. Behind the label, an extensive technical audit can take place, looking among other things at fiber optics, providers, capacity, redundancy, mobile coverage, cabling, telecom rooms and future readiness.

But on the front end, the message must remain simple. What will I get delivered digitally? What do I still need to arrange myself? And does this match the way my organization works digitally? That is the translation IT-Label makes between IT, real estate and the user. More about the measurement method can be found in what the IT label actually assesses.

We do not yet know exactly how quickly AI will change the digital use of every organization. And that is precisely why now is the moment to start measuring, researching and raising awareness. Twenty years ago, internet was mainly a connection for many buildings. Today it is business-critical infrastructure. And tomorrow, the digital capacity of a location may increasingly become part of the location decision.

Ask the new question today

We already ask a tenant how many square meters they need. Perhaps we should also start asking: what is your digital usage profile? A good first step is to place the organization's digital use alongside the digital quality of the building during the next search or valuation.

Want to know what this means specifically for your property or your search profile? See how the IT label works via the page for property owners, or explore the topic further in the knowledge base. IT-Label wants to translate technical reality into real estate language that everyone understands, not to make organizations afraid of the AI revolution, but to prepare buildings and users for it. Because what you don't measure, you can't improve. And what you don't make visible, you also can't compare beforehand. Let's work together to make visible what is currently still invisible.