From square meters to data capacity

An organization looking for a new office or other commercial space often works from a fixed checklist. Square meters, rent, accessibility, parking, energy label, and amenities. These criteria are clear, measurable, and have been standard practice for decades. They appear in every lease brochure and in almost every search profile.

One factor is almost always missing from that list: the digital capacity of the building and the location. How much data traffic can the property actually handle? Is there a second connection if the first one fails? Can the infrastructure keep pace with an organization that will lean more heavily on data and AI in the coming years? These questions are rarely asked, even though they are becoming increasingly decisive.

The central question is shifting as a result. "How many square meters do I need?" remains relevant, but a second question is joining it: "What can my location handle digitally?"

Why data consumption keeps increasing

Business data consumption has been growing for years, and that growth is expected to accelerate further. Video conferencing has become standard, cloud applications are replacing local software, sensors and smart devices connect to the network, and data-driven work demands permanent, reliable connections. AI adds a new layer to this.

Models that generate text, images, or analyses move large volumes of data between the workplace and external computing power. To the user, this feels like a simple request, but underneath it requires bandwidth, stability, and low latency. An organization investing heavily in AI applications can only realize those ambitions if the physical work environment and the digital infrastructure support those ambitions.

This is not a doomsday scenario, but an opportunity. Digitalization opens up new ways of working, provided the building grows along rather than holds things back. The distinction between fact and scenario matters here: that consumption is increasing is an observable trend. How fast and how far it increases varies by sector and remains an expectation.

Fiber optics is not the same as future-proof

Many lease brochures list fiber optics as a selling point. Rightly so, because without a connection, nothing works. But fiber optics at the facade does not automatically mean a building is digitally future-proof. More is at play.

The available capacity on the connection, the presence of a second, independent connection, the quality of the internal cabling, the network equipment, the layout of server and patch rooms, security, and the room to scale up: together, all these components determine what a location can truly handle. You can read more about this in our overview of fiber optics in buildings and about the importance of network redundancy.

A connection at the facade says just as little about digital quality as a front door says about the layout of a building.

The question is whether companies sufficiently investigate how much digital capacity is actually available when making their real estate decisions. Often they do not, simply because the information is missing or hidden in technical reports that the user never reads. As a result, a crucial aspect stays out of the consideration.

The risk of a long lease

Commercial leases typically run five to ten years. Over that period, an organization's digital needs can change significantly. A company signing a lease today is committed for years to a location whose infrastructure may prove insufficient for its own growth within a few years.

Take an AI company looking for 1,000 square meters of office space. Two buildings both have enough floor area, a good energy label, and fiber optics. Location A has limited redundancy and little room to scale up. Location B is prepared for strongly growing data traffic and for critical digital business processes. From the user's perspective, these buildings are not equivalent, even though they may look that way on paper.

Digital growth capacity as a new concept

When choosing real estate, we naturally think about room to grow. How many extra employees can a property accommodate, how many extra workstations? Digital growth capacity adds a dimension to this: how much growth in data traffic, connected devices, cloud use, and AI applications can a location absorb without hitting limits?

This changes the questions an organization should ask its broker. Not just:

• "Can 100 employees work here?"
• But also: "Can 100 employees, hundreds of connected devices, and dozens of AI applications function smoothly here in five years?"

The first question is about today and about floor area. The second is about the duration of the lease and about digital capacity. For an organization that leans heavily on technology, that second question has now become the more important one. This also makes digital infrastructure a commercial matter: a digitally future-proof building becomes more attractive to tenants who depend on data.

A fixed factor in the search profile

Floor area, rent, parking spaces, and energy label have become logical parts of every search profile. The question is whether digital capacity should soon join that list. For a growing number of organizations, the answer is yes.

The problem is not that the information is missing, but that it is incomparable. One brochure mentions fiber optics, another says nothing, a technical report speaks of connection capacity in terms a user cannot place. As long as everyone speaks a different language, comparison remains difficult.

What the IT-label contributes

The IT-label aims to offer exactly that kind of simple translation: between technical IT information and the real estate market. No complicated reports for the user, but insight into a building's digital delivery level and possibilities, expressed in a classification ranging from IT1+ PREMIUM to IT5 SHELL.

Importantly, the IT-label does not pass judgment on a building and is not a substitute for technical standards, certifications, or a specialized IT assessment. It makes digital quality understandable and comparable, so that a tenant, advisor, or owner can place two locations side by side on the same scale.

The next step

When searching for commercial real estate, we mainly look at how much space an organization needs. In an economy that is becoming increasingly dependent on data and AI, a second question is becoming just as relevant: how much digital growth capacity does that organization need, and can the building deliver it?

If you want to make that question concrete for your own situation, start by understanding what the classification means. Read what the IT-label is and which points deserve attention when assessing a location via what to pay attention to. That way, your search profile shifts from square meters alone to the question that will soon matter just as much: what can my new location handle digitally?