For most organisations operating at scale in the European data centre market, regulation is something to be managed, contained and, where possible, minimised. CyrusOne's European General Counsel, Alanna Hasek, sees it differently. In her view, the ability to read the regulatory landscape early – and to help shape it – is one of the clearest competitive advantages available to operators willing to invest the time and resources.

Alanna joined CyrusOne approximately 18 months ago, having previously worked as a partner at an international law firm. She now leads the legal function across Europe, covering everything from legislative horizon scanning to land acquisitions and finance raising. It is, as she readily acknowledges, a wide-ranging brief.

"I always say that my job has kind of been a jack-of-all-trades," she says, "because I basically cover and run the legal team across Europe, really supporting CyrusOne on absolutely everything it's looking at – whether that's legislative changes, where regulation's going or also supporting on strategic projects that we're looking at, so land acquisitions, finance raising, etc."

Compliance remains the foundation, but opportunity lies beyond it

The instinct to view regulation through the lens of compliance is understandable and, Alanna argues, not without merit. The volume and complexity of legislative change facing European data centre operators – spanning EU-wide directives, national frameworks and region-specific requirements – means that maintaining basic compliance is itself a demanding exercise. The cost of falling short, whether in fines or reputational damage, remains a real concern.

But the picture has become more nuanced. Alanna points to recent developments in France and Italy as evidence that national governments are beginning to position data centres as infrastructure critical to economic growth, and are designing regulation accordingly.

"There have been some quite positive regulatory developments for the sector," she says. "We’ve recently seen in France and Italy a movement from national governments in particular, seeing data centres as the backbone of the digital economy, and something which is really important for national growth. We're starting to see regulation that people are putting in place to try and actually incentivise data centre developers and operators to come to those markets, and to streamline some of the processes – whether that's permitting processes or regulatory frameworks around power."

For CyrusOne, this creates a dual opportunity: ensuring compliance while simultaneously using knowledge of regulatory direction to inform where and how the company expands. Alanna is direct about the practical implications. Power availability and pricing may look attractive on paper in a given market, but if the regulatory environment can erode that advantage, it changes the calculus entirely.

"It's all well and good knowing that power prices are going to do X, Y, and Z in a given market, or that power is secure there," she says. "However, having power on paper is a solid starting point, but if regulations change and they put in place procedures whereby you can lose the power if you can't develop within a certain timetable that doesn't match our business needs, then it's all been for nothing – regardless of whether the power was going to be cheap or green."

Breaking down silos to engage policymakers effectively

Influencing regulation requires more than legal expertise. Alanna says that meaningful engagement with policymakers depends on bringing the right voices to the table – particularly technical ones. When it comes to explaining how data centres actually function, and what the unintended consequences of poorly drafted legislation might look like in practice, engineers and operations staff are often better placed than lawyers.

"From a legal team perspective, we're working really closely to see what's coming down the tracks and what we've already got," she says. "But we're also working really closely with the policy team that we have internally, to engage with governments and other stakeholders to explain how the sector works, what some of those regulations mean for us, and to try and shape them – saying, for example, actually, that doesn't have the consequence you're intending; we can't do that for tangible reasons."

The day-to-day reality of cross-functional collaboration involves internal stakeholders, external law firms, planning advisors and, increasingly, AI-driven horizon-scanning tools that flag relevant legislative developments as they emerge. CyrusOne is currently trialling such tools internally. Alanna also points to trade associations – including the German Data Centre Association and its equivalents across other markets – as an important mechanism for collective influence.

"Being ahead of and influencing regulation can be a competitive advantage, but sometimes I don't think it needs to be about competition at all," she says. "Actually, sometimes collaborating with our competitors might be the right approach to get what the industry needs holistically – because the opportunity is so large."

The 'double whammy' of direct and indirect regulatory exposure

One of the less visible complexities facing large data centre operators is that their regulatory exposure does not stop at the boundary of their own operations. CyrusOne's customers – financial services institutions, large technology companies and others – carry their own regulatory obligations, which in turn create indirect requirements for the infrastructure provider supporting them.

"We have a kind of double whammy," Alanna explains. "On the one hand, there's targeted regulation that applies to data centre operators or players, which is obviously applicable. But actually, there's a whole hidden layer beneath that: when you look at CyrusOne's customers and their end users of our services, they may themselves be subject to other regulation or legislation – whether that's because they're financial services institutions with different regulatory requirements, or big tech companies who, for various reasons, will have other compliance hurdles to meet. So from a CyrusOne perspective, we need to map not only what impacts us directly, but all of these indirect impacts as well."

This mapping exercise is continuous rather than periodic. The Cyber Resilience Act is one current example where the team has had to work through questions of applicability carefully. Alanna notes that CyrusOne is broadly comfortable that the CRA will not affect the company directly, but that cybersecurity as a broader theme involves a complex web of legislation – NIS2, the UK's Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and other instruments – that requires ongoing assessment. The approach is to identify the highest applicable standard across all operating markets and use that as the benchmark.

Predictability and community relationships define a smart framework

Asked what a well-functioning regulatory framework would look like, Alanna identifies two qualities above all others: predictability and an effective balance between national interest and local community impact. Neither is straightforward to achieve.

On predictability, Italy provides a useful illustration. The Italian government's stated intention to streamline data centre permitting through a single point of authority is, in principle, positive news for operators. The problem is that the detail remains unclear, leaving businesses uncertain about how the new framework will interact with applications already in progress.

"I would love to see more predictability," Alanna says, "because even where we are ahead of regulatory changes and tracking them, we're often waiting to hear how something is going to apply to the data centre industry – because some existing or new frameworks aren't even put in place with the data centre industry in mind."

The UK presents a different kind of tension. The Critical National Infrastructure designation and government statements about streamlining the planning system have been broadly welcomed by the sector. But national-level prioritisation can create friction at the local level, particularly if communities feel decisions are being made over their heads. For CyrusOne, which intends to develop sites and operate them over the long term, that relationship matters.

"We're not looking to acquire land and exit the market quickly," Alanna says. "We want to develop sites and operate them as part of a local community. So finding a framework that supports the national criticality of data centres whilst also bringing communities and local governments along on the journey is an area that's going to be really important in the next year or so."

Regulatory intelligence as a long-term differentiator for market leaders

Looking further ahead, Alanna believes that the ability to manage regulatory complexity – both for compliance and for strategic positioning – will increasingly distinguish established operators from newer entrants. The resource required to do this well is not trivial, and smaller players may find it difficult to match the investment that larger operators can make in dedicated legal, policy and advisory functions.

The consequences of getting it wrong extend beyond regulatory fines, which Alanna notes can be modest in some areas. The more significant risks are delays to project delivery and damage to commercial credibility with lenders, customers and other stakeholders.

"Any mistake can have huge implications," she says. "Sometimes that's a financial cost – and I don't mean fines from regulators primarily. Rather, it's the delays in our ability to develop a project, or to successfully hand it over to a customer, which can have far more significant reputational and monetary consequences."

That calculus points towards a model in which regulatory intelligence is treated not as a defensive function but as a strategic one – informing market entry decisions, shaping policy conversations and, ultimately, helping to build frameworks that the industry can actually operate within.

"I think some people assume that less regulation is what the industry is looking for," Alanna says. "And actually, sometimes it's not about having less regulation – that's not necessarily the ultimate aim. I think it's more about having regulation which is predictable as far as possible, and also implemented in a way that enables the sector to grow sustainably – in a way that communities can support, because they can see that, ultimately, CyrusOne wants to be a good partner to the community and to the businesses that we serve. So it's not about avoiding regulation or making it less. It's actually about using it in a way that makes us a positive partner."