AI workloads & modern facilities driving Honeywell growth
Tue, 6th Oct 2026 (Today)
Honeywell Technologies is extending its data centre work beyond building systems and security to on-site power and utilities. Its current focus remains inside data halls, but the company sees a growing role for its industrial technologies as operators build denser facilities and face pressure to supply their own electricity.
Power demands
Honeywell already supplies fire protection, building management, security and software integration for data centres. It is also looking at infrastructure outside the data hall, including systems that generate electricity and run central utilities. Its experience in other industrial settings covers gas measurement, electrical systems and cooling.
"It's only now that data centres, because they've been asked to bring their own power, are slowly and gradually converting themselves to power generation assets," said Adhishesh Sood, Senior Director Business Development, Honeywell.
In a facility with gas-fired generation, Honeywell could monitor the fuel before it reaches a turbine and help manage the utility systems supplying the site. The work would depend on each project's design.
Australian projects are also changing in size and technical requirements. Rhys Crabb, who oversees product market fit and strategy across Australia and New Zealand, sees growing interest in new capacity with greater density and AI capability. Retrofitting existing facilities for AI is under discussion, but new developments account for most of the activity he has observed.
"The focus has largely been on new sites, new capacity and different sizes. The types of data centres that are being built are changing to higher density, higher capability and AI capability as well," said Rhys Crabb, Director, Offering Management, Honeywell ANZ.
New sites allow power, cooling and building controls to be planned together. Retrofitting brings different constraints because the systems must fit an existing facility.
Connected systems
Honeywell aims to connect separate building and infrastructure systems through a central management platform. Crabb said integration should serve an operator's goals rather than collect data without a clear use. Fire protection, building management and physical security are established parts of its offering; operational technology security extends that work to the systems that run the facility.
"It's not just integrating the systems; it's integrating the outcomes that are required to get there, and working through what our customers need and what their outcomes are," added Crabb.
Operational technology security concerns equipment that operates the building rather than a customer's corporate IT systems. Crabb considers it closely linked to physical security in data centres, where facilities rely on both digital controls and controlled access.
Customers need not buy every component from Honeywell. A specialist requirement, or a preference for a particular brand of sensor, can be met by integrating a product from another supplier. Compatibility with third-party equipment is therefore part of Honeywell's proposed role alongside the systems it sells itself.
"We have no qualms in integrating a third-party system. We're really good at that as well," added Crabb.
Delivery in Australia and New Zealand involves both channel partners and Honeywell Building Solutions. Their roles vary by product, domain and contract; Crabb could not give an overall split between partner-led and direct projects. Depending on the job, teams may include local project and service staff, engineers based in Australia, India or the United States, and subcontractors brought in for specialist work or additional capacity.
Service terms
Honeywell seeks to work with operators from initial design through commissioning and maintenance. Its Building Solutions team can start with a customer's performance objectives and work backwards to the equipment and integration needed. Channel partners can also sell and deploy Honeywell products. Sood described long service relationships across data centres, commercial property, healthcare and hospitality.
"You don't sign up to a guarantee. You sign up to an outcome," added Sood.
Sood also described upgrades as part of long-running customer relationships when the underlying technology advances. Honeywell has worked with some Australian customers for 10 or 20 years, he said, although he did not identify how many of those relationships involve data centres.
Crabb cited the Sydney Opera House as an example of the company's wider building work, particularly its heating and cooling requirements. He also mentioned a long-term facilities arrangement in Victoria's cancer care sector.
Regional projects
Crabb regards Australia and New Zealand as early adopters of large, integrated building projects in commercial property and infrastructure. He has seen similar approaches emerge in Singapore and Malaysia.
"It's always seemed to be a test bed for this innovation, and it's definitely spread out into Southeast Asia and Singapore and Malaysia," added Crabb.