Driving forces in datacentres
Datacentres are really in the news: Novell has bought
by John Garratt a virtualisation specialist to gain leverage there
john.garratt@iteuropa.com
(opposite page), and a new european survey released
last week showed why IT channels are right to take
them seriously, and also revealed where the likely
growth spots are across europe...
igital Realty Trust, which figured in our last report on growing the habit of mainly European clients to refer to their “datacentre” when it is
D
trends in the datacentre market (IT Europa 18 January), has been little more than a server room.
talking to customers about they need. Bernard Geoghan, VP of the Most datacentres are between 100m2 and 1500m2 – similar in size to
European operation, took us through the findings with a webinar. the US, which some may find surprising. Power and power use is becoming
What’s driving demand? Who makes the decisions about them? What will a reason to upgrade; first generation centres had 500-1000 watts/m2 to
the new datacentres be like, and where and how many will be needed? 2000-2500m2 in the newer centres. Asking about the power of individual
His first point is that this market is still in its infancy – there is little brand racks showed that the US was using 9kw racks, but demand is not rising to
recognition – in fact the names that customers associate with it, including 3000/4000 watts /m2, because the power just isn’t available.
Cisco and Symantec have only peripheral relationships. IBM is the biggest name There are some differences with the US market: 19% of European centres
quoted by European clients as a datacentre provider. were application specific unlike the US which had just 7% - it uses datacentres
The reasons why clients use datacentres becomes more apparent in the for more general IT traffic. Going forward, Digital Realty Trust expects Europe
details: “We see a far more educated client now than in the early 2000s. The to follow the US model with a mix of use.
growth is relatively recent – in the last two years in the US, last year in Europe.” In the plans going forward, the US had a higher proportion looking to invest
There tends to be fewer datacentres in Europe than the US – but this is in datacentres, but the difference in Europe which will take longer to hit its
down to the markets that the Europeans are in, but also shows where the stride, being some 18 months behind the US. But the eventual outcome may
growth is likely to be – in adding centres. Where there is also confusion is in be the same, with significant expansion in Europe in the next period.
Europe is primarily still looking for solutions
to issues of disaster recovery; while the US is
rolling out new applications, even in spite of a
spending squeeze. Demand is expected to stay
strong, with Europe catching up, he says. 19% are
looking at four or more datacentres in the near
future, moving from a lower number of centres.
Factors governing location – security is top,
but accessibility is also a driver. Away from
Relative sweet spots in datacentre size, Europe and US source: Digital Realty Trust population centres, but need to be close to
16 29 feb 2008
It0804 - 16-17_datacentres.indd 14 27/02/2008 10:24:36
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