By Dirk Naylor, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Communications & Security Solutions for Wesco.gettyIn 2025, we saw booming global demand for data center solutions among hyperscale, enterprise and multi‑tenant customers. ​Today, continued data center growth hinges on the industry’s ability to overcome challenges in site power readiness, skilled labor shortages and supply chain limits. Securing reliable power, including access to natural gas and nuclear, is increasingly influencing site‑selection decisions and pushing development into secondary markets.Why Power Availability Dictates Data Center GrowthPower has become one of the defining challenges in building and running data centers. Operators are grappling with grid limitations, rising power densities and the need for modernization of aging infrastructure. Addressing these issues requires a combination of grid coordination, site‑power solutions, modernization programs and, increasingly, alternative energy strategies. Reliable power is no longer simply an engineering concern—it is a strategic differentiator that determines how quickly and efficiently new capacity can come online.As an industry, we also must expand the skilled trades workforce required to build and maintain data center facilities on a larger scale and to ramp up manufacturing of critical components to reduce lead times and strengthen supply chain resiliency.It is predicted that the U.S. engineering and construction industry will need approximately 500,000 new workers in 2026 to keep up with demand. Structural factors continue to limit labor supply. Deloitte predicts that by 2031, 41% of construction workers will retire. With only 10% of current workers under 25, there will be a shortage of employees in the field.​​ ​One way this can be approached is by supporting workforce development initiatives across the electrical construction industry to expand access to critical training and education opportunities. At Wesco, I've learned firsthand that by helping offset the financial burden of trade education and apprenticeship expenses, these types of initiatives help attract new talent to the industry and strengthen the pipeline of skilled electrical professionals.The Next Phase Of Data Center GrowthThe next era of data center growth will be shaped by how effectively we solve these challenges, and how quickly we can turn ambitious plans into reliable, resilient infrastructure. Despite challenges that are shaping how and where the next generation of data centers will be built, I believe the industry will continue to grow, even if the pace moderates from the extraordinary levels of the past two years. Backlog growth and continued demand for gray‑space infrastructure suggest that major development will continue well into 2026 and beyond.​That begins with initial electrification projects and early‑stage design, where power architecture, resiliency strategies and long‑lead infrastructure decisions are made. It extends through construction and commissioning, and continues into day‑to‑day operations, where uptime, scalability and efficiency are essential. The explosive rise of AI and other compute‑intensive technologies has also elevated supply chain infrastructure to a national and boardroom priority.​​These forces are increasing the complexity of data center development and operations, particularly as projects scale in size, power demands and geographic reach. Delivering new capacity now requires close coordination across the entire ecosystem, spanning everything from electrical distribution and cooling systems to connectivity and long-term maintenance.As AI infrastructure projects grow larger and more resource-intensive, coordinating these elements is becoming critical to move from vision to reality.​Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?