Research conducted at DatacenterDynamics London 2006 (Royal Lancaster Hotel, November 28th and 29th) indicates that half of UK data center owners and operators aim to build new data centers during 2007.

Two samples were researched, one of 128 organisations that own and/or operate data center facilities and the other of 122 organisations that supply products and services to the sector. Both indicate strong projected growth into calendar year 2007.
The owner/operator sample spent overall an estimated £3 billion in 2006 on improving and increasing their data center 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 center sector is estimated at £1.6 billion and this is projected to rise by over 25% into the 2007 calendar year to just over $2.1 billion.
While research projections will always be subject to unforeseable future events, the credibility of the information provided by both samples can be indicated by their market standing. The sample of owner/operators' is responsible for just under one million square metres in gross space of data center facilities and almost 30,000 individual sites (from major data centers 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.
With strong projected growth come new risks and new responsibilities. Among those issues nominated in research as of greatest concern to delegates and vendors at DatacenterDynamics are the implications of increasing power consumption, the cooling requirements of high-density configurations, anxiety about the inherently unpredictable nature of the sector and some concerns as to whether industry knowledge and expertise are sufficient to meet immediate challenges. Only 22.6% of end users' agree that they understand and can predict what will happen in their own data centers.
As the largest assembly of data center professionals in the world, DatacenterDynamics London 2006 saw the sector looking outwards rather than inwards and to thinking and application rather than just technology in order to meet the challenges and responsibilities of operating and supplying to mission-critical facilities in coming years.
George Rockett, the Show Producer and co-founder of the global DatacenterDynamics Conference and Expo series, highlighted the consequences of growth as a key output of the London event:
"Growth and the limits on growth have been an ongoing theme in the thirteen cities we have engaged through 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. 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. At this event, we have faced those issues and, more than in previous years, we have involved experts who can provide new perspectives on the data center facilities and engineering sector. Our industry increasingly has a public face.
The DatacenterDynamics global Conference and Expo series is instrumental on both a global and regional level in identifying and discussing the dynamics of growth in the data center sector. The London Conference and Expo welcomed 820 personnel from end user' organisations (including consultants) and 250 personnel from vendor organisations to 56 presentations and panel sessions over the two days and 56 vendor booths in the adjacent Expo.
DatacenterDynamics London 2006 received a very positive response from both delegates and vendors. In line with the growth projections indicated in the research and the key infrastructural preoccupations of delegates, DatacenterDynamics will return to London in March 2007 with a one day conference and exhibition dedicated specifically to matters of energy efficiency.