Study indicates widespread data centre expansions by European companies during next 24 months

New research data has been published which focuses on the leading data centre trends in the European market and based on a recent poll of senior decision makers who are either directly responsible for data centres or influence significant decisions related to data centre operations at large European companies. The research was conducted for Digital Realty Trust by the respected research firm Campos Research & Analysis. The surveyed companies come from a wide range of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, professional services, packaged consumer goods, telecommunications, consumer services and information technology.

Key findings from the research study and additional data points are as follows:

* More than 80 percent of respondents have plans to expand their data centres.
- 18 percent plan to expand their data centre in the very near term (within the next 12 months).
- 67 percent plan to expand their data centres within the next 24 months.
- 15 percent of respondents are in the planning stages for data centre expansion that will happen more than 24 months from now.
- Of the study participants who are planning data centre expansions, 79 percent plan to expand in two or more locations, indicating that these expansions will be complex, multi-site data centre initiatives.
- The average size of the planned expansions is approximately 1,000 square metres (10,000 square feet).

* Disaster recovery initiatives were cited as the leading reason for expansions, but the need for additional network connectivity, upgraded cooling, more raised floor area, additional power, and new applications were also cited as key drivers for expansion plans.

* Respondents identified the following cities as their most preferred cities for the location of their data centre expansions (in order of ranking):
- London
- Paris
- Dublin
- Amsterdam
- New York

* Nearly 60 percent of companies have developed a green strategy for their data centres that will impact their future data centre decisions.

* 74 percent of companies expect virtualization to reduce their space requirements, but they estimate this reduction to be 20 percent or less.

A number of additional findings from the research study were:

* Approximately 17 percent of companies have no redundancy for their electrical and cooling equipment in their current data centres.
- Only half of companies have dedicated backups (2N) for their critical electrical systems.

* Three quarters of all respondents are planning to expand to data centres with between approximately 500 and 2500 square metres (5,000-25,000 square feet) of raised floor space.

* When study participants were asked to rate the importance of several factors in selecting a geographic location for their data centres, security was ranked as the most important criterion followed by accessibility for company personnel, telecom availability and power costs.

* Three out of every five respondents plan to use a partner to implement their expansion plans. Only 21 percent are planning to implement the expansion themselves.

http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com/

•Date: 8th Nov 2007• Region:UK/W.Europe •Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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