UK datacentre sector poised for growth

Proportion of data centre owners planning to build new facilities will double in 2007

Half of UK data centre owners and operators aim to build new data centres during 2007, according to Research conducted by DatacenterDynamics.

Two samples were researched, one of 128 organisations that own and/or operate data centre facilities and the other of 122 organisations that supply products and services to the sector. Both indicate strong projected growth for 2007.

The owner/operator sample spent overall an estimated £3bn in 2006 on improving and increasing their data centre facilities. Just under one in four built new facilities in 2006; half refitted or extended their capacity within existing facilities and one in three has relocated or consolidated their operations.

The research indicates that, among sample organisations, levels of refit and consolidation will remain constant through 2007 but that the proportion intending to build new facilities will double.

A similar increase profile is indicated by the sample of vendors. Their turnover from the data centre sector is estimated at £1.6bn and this is projected to rise by over 25 per cent into the 2007 calendar year to just over £2.1 bn.

George Rockett, co-founder of the global DatacenterDynamics Conference, says this growth started in 2006.

'The feedback and data we have received from London indicates a rate of new construction and renovation activity equivalent to those we have found in developing markets we have covered, such as India,' he said.

'The idiosyncrasies of the UK market, such as the availability of space and projected limitations of energy availability, add a further level of risk to that level of projected growth. Our industry increasingly has a public face,' said Rockett.

The sample of ‘owner/operators' is responsible for just under one million square metres in gross space of datacentre facilities and almost 30,000 individual sites (from major data centres to switching closets).

They operate 420 facilities of over 100 racks capacity, an estimated one-quarter of all such facilities in the United Kingdom. The vendor sample included all UK market leaders in the provision of infrastructure, consulting and services to the data centre sector.

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