High-performing, sustainable, and scalable digital infrastructures.
Design & Construction - Engineering
Designing a data center means orchestrating technical, energy, regulatory, and operational constraints, while guaranteeing a high level of availability.
APL supports its clients from the design to the delivery of custom data centers, integrating market best practices and the most relevant innovations.
Tailored design, to meet your challenges
Each project begins with a thorough understanding of your needs:
- IT capacity and density
- Availability and redundancy levels (Tier)
- Environmental and regulatory constraints
- Energy performance objectives
- Operational and scalability requirements
We design infrastructures adapted to your trajectory, capable of evolving over time without questioning their architecture.
Support from APL Data Center
Complete mastery of design
Our teams are involved in all phases:
- Technical, environmental, and urban planning feasibility studies
- Architectural and technical design
- Preliminary designs and specifications
- BIM modeling and collaborative 3D models
- Comparison of technical solutions (cooling, energy, etc.)
Building without compromise
- Controlled service continuity, even on occupied sites
- Optimized energy efficiency from design
- Anticipation of future developments
- Integration of the best market technologies
Turnkey data center
APL manages all implementation stages:
- Execution studies
- Consultation and selection of companies
- Work planning and coordination
- General contractor management (TCE)
- Supervision of tests, trials, and commissioning
- Delivery in operational conditions
We guarantee compliance with deadlines, costs, and expected performance levels.
Commissioning, a strong expertise of APL
At APL, commissioning is part of a global approach that is not limited to the final phase of the project. It continuously verifies the consistency between initial needs, design choices, and implementation.
Our teams notably ensure:
- Verification of installation compliance with project requirements
- Execution of functional tests and failure scenarios
- Validation of system performance (energy, cooling, redundancy)
- Coordination and proper functioning of the various technical systems
- Support for operational teams in taking over the installations
APL’s strengths:
- Commissioning management: preparation, use of ACxM, management of L1/L2/L3 levels, IRL management, handover (L6) management
- Commissioning agent: design review (L0), preparation, ACxM configuration, FOaK L1/L2/L3, management of L4/L5 levels
Focus on retrofit: modernizing infrastructures in operational conditions
Faced with energy, regulatory, and operational challenges, existing infrastructures must evolve to remain high-performing, compliant, and adapted to current needs.
Retrofit consists of modernizing an existing data center or IT room, without resorting to complete reconstruction, in order to improve its technical, energy, and operational performance.
APL supports its clients in transforming their infrastructures, taking into account operational constraints and service continuity.
Multiple objectives
Retrofit projects address several challenges:
- Reduce carbon footprint by improving the energy efficiency of installations
- Reduce operating costs
- Anticipate and integrate regulatory developments (SFDR directive, European taxonomy…)
- Strengthen the resilience of infrastructures against hazards and climatic events
- Preserve the value and longevity of the building
A structured and progressive approach
APL intervenes at each stage of the project:
- Technical, energy, and capacity audit of existing installations
- Identification of areas for improvement and intervention priorities
- Comparative studies of feasible technical solutions
- Work planning in a constrained environment
- Management of upgrade operations
Interventions may involve equipment replacement, improvement of energy and cooling systems, room re-urbanization, or optimization of flows.
Maintain activity during works
Retrofit projects are carried out taking into account operational constraints.
APL implements phasing and security strategies to carry out the work without interruption of IT services.
This approach significantly improves the performance of existing infrastructures, while controlling risks, costs, and deadlines.
Our solutions
APL Data Center designs and optimizes critical infrastructures capable of meeting the major challenges of the digital age: data security, service continuity, scalability, cost control, and sustainability.
Through a global approach integrating innovation and CSR, we support every type of client in creating next-generation data centers tailored to their uses and constraints.
Hyperscaler
Hyperscale data centers are now at the heart of digital growth driven by cloud and AI. They are changing scale: in a few years, power has multiplied, projects are faster, larger, and have unprecedented energy density. These infrastructures are now true high-intensity digital factories, where every decision has significant impacts.
Edge
In a rapidly growing and increasingly competitive market, hosting providers and Edge players must combine speed of deployment, technical performance, local acceptability, and economic competitiveness. They must also integrate growing constraints related to energy access, real estate, and environmental requirements.
Private enterprise
It constitutes an indispensable foundation for digital growth, driven by the rise of cloud and AI, in a context of rapidly increasing power and demands. It must be reliable, secure, and high-performing — but also aligned with the economic, environmental, and strategic priorities of the organization.
Public sector
In a context where data centers have become indispensable foundations for digital growth and the transformation of public services, they are now true strategic infrastructures serving the economy and territories.
Our approach
Organic Design
At the heart of our approach: an integrated and optimized design of all systems.
“Organic design” aims to:
- Optimize the interaction between different technical systems
- Reduce energy consumption
- Improve the overall resilience of the infrastructure
- Integrate the data center into its environment (building, territory, energy)
Why APL?
For over 40 years, APL has exclusively supported data center players with recognized expertise built on the ground, through thousands of projects. A recognized independent player on a European scale, APL provides a global vision of critical infrastructures, integrating the technical, economic, and strategic dimensions of each project.
Our approach covers the entire life cycle of the data center, from design to operation, reconciling performance, security, and energy efficiency. Thanks to this complete mastery, we help our clients build sustainable, scalable infrastructures capable of meeting tomorrow’s challenges.
Choosing APL means relying on a long-term committed partner.
They trust us
For over 40 years, APL Data Center has been supporting public and private players across all sectors in the success of their data center projects.
Our references illustrate the diversity of our missions and our ability to design, deploy, and operate critical infrastructures adapted to the challenges of each client.
Meet our experts
A strategic project, an ongoing reflection, or a need for expertise?
The APL Data Center teams are at your service to support you.