Data peaks in real estate: capacity as a utility question

We now talk about grid congestion on a daily basis. But what happens when it is not electricity, but data, that has to pass through the same digital front door? In real estate, we have grown accustomed to thinking about energy in terms of capacity and peak load. We hardly think about digital capacity in that same way yet.

This article uses the comparison between the electricity grid and the digital network as a framework. Not because the Netherlands currently has a formal, nationwide data congestion problem that works exactly like grid congestion, because technically that is not the case. But because the same way of thinking about simultaneous use within a building turns out to be surprisingly useful.

The central question is easy to ask and harder to answer: what can a building handle digitally at the moment everyone is online at the same time?

What peak load means for electricity

In the Netherlands, grid congestion does not arise because there is always too little electricity capacity. It arises precisely because at certain moments a lot of demand or supply has to be transported over the same infrastructure at the same time. It is a matter of simultaneity, not a structural shortage.

A recognizable picture: at 08:00 machines start up on a business park. At 09:00 the office day begins. And at 17:00 people come home and heat pumps, charging stations and household appliances all switch on at once. At such moments, the grid needs to have enough capacity to handle the peak.

Various solutions now exist to flatten or shift that peak:

• peak shaving;
• load shifting;
• battery storage;
• smart energy management;
• locally generated energy;
• flexible electricity use.

The essence is that in certain situations electricity can be stored or consumption can be shifted. A company might charge a battery during a quiet moment and use that energy during a peak. But can we do the same with data?

Data can be stored. Capacity cannot simply be.

An important distinction is needed here. Data itself can be stored. A file is saved on a server, laptop, NAS, edge server or in the cloud. But the network capacity needed to send and receive data at a given moment cannot be put into a battery in the same way.

You can save last night's electricity for tomorrow morning. But you cannot store last night's internet capacity in advance for tomorrow's Teams meeting at 10:00. That is the heart of this discussion.

Within IT, techniques do exist to organize data traffic more intelligently, such as caching, local storage, content delivery, edge computing, Quality of Service, traffic shaping, multiple network connections, load balancing, redundancy, and scheduling large backups and software updates outside peak hours. These measures help considerably.

Still, many modern applications require a real-time connection: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, VoIP, cloud applications, ERP and CRM systems, video streaming, cameras, cloud backups, AI applications, building management systems, IoT devices, access control and real-time dashboards. A video call at 10:00 cannot be sent through the line ahead of time at 03:00.

With energy, we learned to think in terms of peak load and capacity. That same question should be just as self-evident for a building: how much data traffic can this building handle at once?

When does a data peak occur in a building?

Picture an office building at 09:00. Hundreds of employees arrive. Laptops connect to WiFi at the same time, cloud applications synchronize, Outlook fetches email, Teams starts up, OneDrive syncs and phones connect to the wireless network.

At the same time, cameras upload footage, access control registers employees, building systems send data, and backups may still be running. Meanwhile, dozens of employees are asking AI assistants questions that pull information from the cloud and send it back. That is a data peak.

Is "fiber is present" still sufficient information about a building? Or do we also need to know:

• how much capacity is actually available;
• how that capacity is distributed;
• how many users can be active at the same time;
• where internal bottlenecks are located;
• whether the WiFi can handle that capacity;
• whether switches and cabling have sufficient capacity;
• whether the connection is redundant;
• which equipment causes the peak load;
• how much room for growth remains.

The weakest link determines digital capacity

A fast fiber connection at the front door does not automatically mean a building is fast digitally. Think of a highway: a ten-lane highway leading to a building is of little value if the final stretch consists of a single narrow lane.

The internet connection might deliver 10 Gbit/s, while internal cabling limits the capacity, switches are outdated, access points become overloaded, uplinks are too small, a single patch cabinet has to handle everything, or an incorrect network configuration causes delay. It is therefore not only about bandwidth, but about the entire digital chain from provider to workstation.

Introducing the concept of digital peak capacity

We propose a term that captures this: a building's digital peak capacity. By this we mean the amount of simultaneous digital load that a building's infrastructure can reliably handle without noticeably degrading performance, continuity or user experience.

This may become just as relevant in the future as contracted electrical power. With electricity, we ask: how many kW can the building handle? With digital real estate, we could increasingly ask: how much simultaneous data traffic can this building handle? This question fits with the shift from square meters to data capacity.

Two worlds side by side

The comparison becomes clearer in an overview. Pay particular attention to the last row, as that is where the decisive difference lies.

The key difference in one sentence: electricity demand can sometimes be shifted or temporarily absorbed through storage, while much digital demand is real-time and must be processed exactly at the moment of use.

AI makes this discussion more relevant

AI does not automatically mean every office will need tens of gigabits of internet tomorrow. Exaggerated claims help no one. What is clear, however, is that organizations are using more and more digital services and that AI is becoming part of virtually every business application.

In addition, the use of cloud software, video communication, connected devices, sensors, digital security, smart buildings and real-time data analysis is growing. When assessing real estate, it is therefore important to look not only at current data use, but also at future digital growth capacity. Is your building prepared for tomorrow's data consumption?

Real estate looks at energy capacity. Why not at data capacity?

When renting or buying commercial space, questions about available grid capacity, contracted power, transformer capacity, solar panels, charging options and grid congestion are increasingly common. These questions have become standard practice.

But how often does a tenant ask how many fiber connections are present, which providers are available, what the maximum capacity is, whether there is physical redundancy, what cabling is installed, what speed the switches support, how many access points are present, and how many simultaneous users the network can handle? This information is almost always missing from the rental brochure.

Will digital capacity become the next utility that real estate professionals routinely ask about? For office buildings and commercial premises, that question is becoming increasingly hard to avoid.

From internet connection to what a building can handle digitally

IT-Label therefore does not aim only to establish whether internet is present, but above all what a building can handle digitally. An IT-Label or Digital Due Diligence looks at, among other things, fiber, available providers, bandwidth, redundancy, cabling category, backbone, switches, WiFi infrastructure, server and patch rooms, network architecture, documentation, capacity, scalability, continuity and future data consumption.

Bottlenecks can occur at various levels: the telecom network, the provider connection, the building entry point, the backbone, the switch, the WiFi, the server or the application. This creates a digital delivery level that describes the entire chain, from premium to shell.

A preview of the capacity profile

Today we describe a building with characteristics such as 2,500 m² of office space, energy label A++ and 500 kW of available power. Tomorrow, a digital profile may be added, with characteristics such as an IT2 PLUG & PLAY classification, two independent fiber connections, a 10 Gbit/s backbone, enterprise WiFi and redundant digital infrastructure.

In this way, digital infrastructure becomes part of the technical quality of real estate, alongside energy. Not as a separate specification, but as part of how we understand the value of a building.

Find out what your building can handle digitally

Tomorrow's question may not only be: how many square meters does my organization need? Nor only: how much electricity can this building deliver? But increasingly: how much digital growth can this building handle when everyone is online at the same time?

Energy can be stored temporarily. A real-time connection cannot. That is why it is not enough to know whether a building is connected. We need to investigate what the building can handle digitally at the moment it really matters.

Owners, tenants and real estate professionals can have the digital delivery level and future capacity of their building assessed through an IT-Label pre-inspection or via www.it-label.com. Together, we make visible what is currently still invisible.