Westgate Global, which designs, engineers and installs purpose-built protection screening and partitioning systems for complex build environments, has announced the launch of a dedicated data centre strategy, backed by almost five decades of experience protecting project momentum on mission-critical builds.
The launch comes as the UK data centre market enters a period of rapid expansion. Data centres were classed as Critical National Infrastructure in 2024, and the government has since set a target of 6GW of AI-capable data centre capacity by 2030, roughly tripling current capacity, backed by its AI Growth Zones initiative spanning Oxfordshire, North and South Wales, the North East and further regions.
Westgate Global’s data centre strategy brings a formal, dedicated focus to a portfolio of projects the company has quietly built up in the UK, US and Europe. So far in 2026, the team has worked on twelve projects, with forty others expected to be agreed before the end of the year.
The wider UK data centre market, valued at around $7.46billion in 2025, is forecast to reach $12.46billion by 2034. All of this is putting contractors and data centre operators under pressure to deliver more and faster, at sites right across the country.
But that pressure is colliding with increased risk of extreme weather that can cause huge delays to build schedules and mounting costs for both operators and contractors – if that risk is not designed and planned for early on in data centre build programmes. 
The so-called “supersized” El Niño, is now firmly established according to experts – with an update from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) saying there will be big impacts globally on rainfall and temperature patterns and associated risks of floods, drought and extreme heat. In the UK, the Met Office said it’s expected we’ll experience wetter, stormier conditions throughout autumn and winter.
As the UK market accelerates towards the government’s 2030 capacity target, Westgate Global is well positioned as the go-to partner for operators and contractors who need weather risk designed into a build programme from day one.
Its Flexiscreen® wraps around data centre construction building, keeping out wind, rain, temperature swings and dust, the things that stop a data hall build in its tracks when the weather turns and it keeps critical server room and data hall construction moving whatever the forecast.
Speaking on the launch of its strategy, Murray Gates, Westgate Global CEO, said:
“The UK data centre market is rapidly growing and the pressure is on for contractors to complete projects as quickly and efficiently as possible. Westgate Global’s data centre strategy brings decades of experience working in challenging mission-critical environments to deliver a solution to the market that not only helps protect momentum on data centre builds, but actually helps accelerate project completion too.”
On the growing threat extreme weather poses to build schedules, Murray added:
“We are already working with operators, contractors and consultants to highlight the importance of weather risk management and the need for robust and reliable solutions. Given the pressure to deliver, allocating budget to this area of the build project from the outset is crucial to minimising downtime – especially as the market scales – and to avoid snowballing costs further down the line.
“Data centre builds require specific weather conditions day-by-day to stay on schedule, but those conditions rarely occur and look set to become more infrequent. That’s why it’s going to be so important for the industry to move away from a common practice of patchwork fixes after the weather event has happened to planning for them well in advance – our weather is becoming predictably unpredictable.”
For more information on Westgate Global, visit: https://westgate-global.com/.
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