Anyone looking at the news in January and February 2008 will see reports such as "Morgan Stanley plans NJ data center" and "Construction underway on HSBC data center" "T-Mobile signs up to new data center"; "Lithuania googled for data center" and "IBM and EU fund examination of the direction of cloud computing" Already the trends of the year were clear with offerings promising to cut data center power consumption and monitoring and measuring clearly becoming a major trend. Continued large data center investments were announced while industry consolidation started early in the year.

January 2008: Technology: Networking firms Cisco and Brocade make more overtures to the sector with new products and services and established player Siemon launched a network management tool.

US: One of year's first big contracts was announced with a $130 million data center services deal awarded to Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) from healthcare company Allergan.

Corporate: Other news included companies opting for certifications such as LEED and some industry consolidation with Managed Data Holdings buying Data393, a Denver based data center operator.

UK: In the UK Digital Realty Trust acquired a London surburban data center and property developer Lasercharm filed a planning application with East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) for a