Lockton Launches Independent Lifecycle Advisory for Digital Infrastructure

In July 2026, Lockton launched a global Data Centers and Digital Infrastructure Practice to help organizations manage complex infrastructure risks. Led by James Nelson and Sam Baker, the Lockton practice combines risk strategy, analytics, and engineering insight to support clients across the full project lifecycle.

Beyond Standard Insurance: Lockton’s New Lifecycle Model

This launched a new advisory model focused on the infrastructure lifecycle, leveraging its global experience with complex digital infrastructure risks. This model integrates risk strategy, analytics, engineering insight, and market expertise to serve owners, operators, developers, and technology providers. Unlike competitors such as Aon and Marsh, Lockton provides an independent approach, providing objective advice from site selection to operational scale-up.

The team, led by James Nelson in the U.S. and Sam Baker in the UK, supports clients through project planning, construction, and ongoing risk management. Their tailored solutions cover a range of areas, including construction and property risk, cyber, and environmental risk. Tim Ryan and Chris Brown stated that the independent practice offers lifecycle advice beyond standard insurance. Nelson brings prior experience from Eldin Risk, Marsh, Cerberus, and Alvarez and Marsal.

This massive expansion is straining market capacity, resulting in scenarios where some projects remain underinsured, and investors pass on debt opportunities. Whereas insurers and brokers are seeking to increase capacity, sponsors are increasingly leveraging captives to absorb risks for projects that are spreading beyond traditional geographical hubs.

This launch positions the firm to compete for advisory mandates in a high-growth market characterized by massive investment, capacity constraints, and complex risks, including unique construction and catastrophe exposure. As the market navigates insuring projects of unprecedented scale, expert brokers with full-lifecycle capabilities are essential for clients in securing coverage and managing risk.

Impact on the ICT Industry

Lockton's launch of its global data centers and digital infrastructure practice impacts the ICT industry by offering integrated risk strategy, full-lifecycle project support, and independent advisory models. It also addresses capital-intensive and time-sensitive industry challenges through targeted solutions.

This launch offers effective lifecycle risk management that supports digital infrastructure from site selection and planning through construction, operational launch, and portfolio expansion. This also helps to introduce tailored products for construction and property limitations, cyber threats, environmental issues, service level agreements, and surety. The ecosystem is also supported by connecting owners, developers, hyperscalers, and technology providers with combined analytics and engineering insights.

To overcome industry limitations, this type of strategy focuses on optimizing financial risk to handle soaring project costs, solving complex power and scaling challenges fostered by AI and cloud demands, and using an independent, privately held structure to offer unbiased brokerage advice free from in-house targets. Additionally, conflicted brokerage models also leverage Lockton's fully independent, privately held structure independent of proprietary capacity or in-house placement targets.

Impact of the Digital Infrastructure Industry

The global digital infrastructure market size accounted for USD 425.00 billion in 2025 and is predicted to increase from USD 475.10 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 1,321.26 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 11.80% from 2026 to 2035.

According to Precedence Research, this launch impacts the digital infrastructure industry through an end-to-end advisory model, independent, objective guidance, and specialized lifecycle risk mitigation. It overcomes major industry limitations by replacing fragmented traditional insurance with unified, tailored strategies.

The insurance advisory model combines lifecycle support and tailors financial products to address increasing project values and capital expenditures across the industry ecosystem. It also combines risk strategy, analytics, and engineering insight from planning to operational scale-up for owners, developers, and technology providers. The framework delivers specialized financial solutions covering construction, cyber exposures, environmental liabilities, and surety. This ecosystem-wide service supports modern stakeholders in managing expanding financial risks and larger project investments securely.

An independent, objective model eliminates conflicts of interest, allowing for the proactive management of capital-intensive risks to meet strict ready-for-service deadlines. Additionally, addressing complex, interconnected hazards necessitates specialized global leadership to connect knowledge gaps across power infrastructure, grid limitations, and evolving security threats.

About Lockton

Lockton is the world's largest private and family-owned insurance brokerage founded in Kansas City in 1966 by Jack Lockton, operating globally with over 13,000 specialists across 140 countries. It delivers tailored risk management, commercial insurance, employee benefits, retirement consulting, and specialty advisory services. Driven by an independent, client-centric philosophy, Lockton rejects public market pressures to focus on long-term risk strategies. The firm challenges standard brokerage models by providing dynamic, flexible solutions aligned with complex global environments.