Research conducted by DatacenterDynamics indicates than Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt all show very strong datacentre growth potential. Although these markets are all smaller in terms of racks, datacentre space and expenditure than the global centres of London, New York or San Francisco this should not disguise the fact that they are very different in terms of facilities, attitudes and intentions towards technological development.

Download research from DatacenterDynamics Paris 2007 conference
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Download research from DatacenterDynamics Amsterdam 2007 conference
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Download research from DatacenterDynamics Frankfurt 2007 conference
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These three markets share common characteristics of operating younger facilities than the global centres with similar average power profiles and similar average inlet temperatures, although datacentres in the Paris sample are run 6oF cooler (at an average of 63oF) than those in other cities. All three cities anticipate strong growth in datacentre investment into 2008 with Amsterdam projecting a 39% increase in expenditure over 2006/7, Paris a 34% increase and Frankfurt a 17% increase.
In all three cities, the cluster of power-cooling issues dominates concerns for the future, although the concern is expressed differently in each city. Cooling and the speed of technological change are mentioned as top four concerns in each city although in Paris, the major concern is over interruptions to power supply, in Amsterdam there is significant concern over the environmental impacts of datacentre power consumption and in Frankfurt about datacentre efficiency.
The three markets differ also in their attitudes. While all three cities acknowledge that the datacentre sector holds major environmental responsibilities, opinion differs as to the methods for discharging those responsibilities. Paris is largely in favour of the external regulation of the sector in terms of energy consumption Frankfurt is very much against it and Amsterdam, undecided. Paris shows a greater faith in IT-based and automated solutions than the other two cities and this can be linked to their greater concerns over the inherent unpredictability of the datacentre and the belief that datacentre resilience will not be sacrificed to efficiency. This contrasts with both Amsterdam and Frankfurt where energy efficiency holds greater prominence. That Paris may be suffering from concerns about fundamental datacentre management is suggested by the contradiction that while the sector in that city shows the greatest concern about having enough power for future datacentre growth, energy efficiency has a lesser currency in Paris than in the other two cities.
Each city has particular technologies that feature highly within the inventory. Paris indicates a high level of building accreditation, outsourcing and extending equipment lifecycle; Amsterdam indicates high levels of moving facilities out of CBD locations and the use of rack-level power and temperature monitoring and Frankfurt facilities have sought to tackle the key cooling issue through the use of free cooling and liquid cooling solutions, as well as a high use of intelligent' fibre cabling.
In 2007, the DatacenterDynamics Global Series has included twenty-two events in the world's leading business centers and research conducted in parallel will develop local and regional perspectives on the challenges facing owners and operators of data centers. The DatacenterDynamics research programme has already surveyed eleven major American, Asian and European events and collected over 2,000 responses. The results of the research will be analysed further and reporting on key trends and projections will be made available at the beginning of 2008. To register your interest in these upcoming publications, please email us on [email protected].
For further information please contact George Rockett, Show Producer, DatacenterDynamics. Telephone +44 (0)20 7814 7989 or e-mail [email protected]. For Press & Research enquiries contact Nick Parfitt, SPA Communications on +44 (0)7900 601305 or e-mail [email protected]