Digital Realty Trust, Inc., a leading owner and manager of corporate data centers and Internet gateways, is reporting new research data focused on the leading data center trends in the European market. The release of this data follows the publication of a similar study of the US data center market earlier in 2007. This new European study is based on a recent poll of senior decision makers who are either directly responsible for data centers or influence significant decisions related to data center operations at large European companies. The research was conducted for Digital Realty Trust by the respected research firm Campos Research & Analysis, the same firm that conducted the earlier study of data center-related initiatives in the US. 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 provided below:
- More than 80 percent of respondents have plans to expand their data centers.
- Of the study participants who are planning data center expansions, 79 percent plan to expand in two or more locations, indicating that
these expansions will be complex, multi-site data center initiatives.
- The average size of the planned expansions is approximately 1,000 square metres (10,000 square feet).
- Respondents identified the following cities as their most preferred cities for the location of their data center expansions (in order of
ranking): - London - Paris - Dublin - Amsterdam - New York
- Nearly 60 percent of companies have developed a green strategy for their data centers that will impact their future data center decisions.
"Similar to our survey of the US market earlier this year, this study of European data centers initiatives paints a robust picture of the data center market: broad-based demand for data center space from a wide variety of industries, with strong growth prospects based on the project timelines looking out two years and beyond. The findings revealed that demand was even stronger than our own estimates; it is remarkable to see that in both Europe and the US more than 80 percent of companies are planning data centers expansions," said Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust.
Foust added, "One thing that is very clear from this European study and the earlier US study is that data centers are core to the operating infrastructure for companies today. Data centers are no longer simply a closet full of servers that only the IT team worries about; data centers are critical assets that the executive team and Board of Directors have as one of the key issues on their radar screen."
Digital Realty Trust presented the full findings of this research study at the Data centers Dynamics London event on November 12-13, 2007.