END-USER DATA CENTER WHITESPACE DECLINES IN THE UK

According to the figures collected by the 2012 Data center Dynamics Industry Census, the amount of end-user owned and operated data center whitespace has declined in the UK.

The results for the local market showed a decline of 0.35m sq m in the market from 3.30m sq m of whitespace to 2.95m sq m of whitespace managed by private enterprise and organizations.

There has been a slight increase in the whitespace due to local outsourcing. Colocation whitespace increased to 0.75 sq m from 0.70 sq m. Interviews with the end-users showed that consolidation of data centers has lead to more dense facilities with efficient use of space.

Datacenter Dynamics Intelligence managing director Nicola Hayes said, “Companies are being driven to consolidation by the poor economic climate in the UK, decreases in budgets and increases in power cost”.

“Data center operators have realized that by running multiple facilities there are additional costs involved including staff and energy for non-IT related functions and thanks to the increasing use of virtualization companies have been able to decrease the amount of space required,” Hayes said.

“This is something that was predicted by many industry commentators towards the end of last year and at the beginning of this year.”

Despite these efforts, the requirement for power by end-users has been on the rise. Power for the UK is up from 2.10GW in 2011 to 2.20GW in 2012.

There is little doubt that data center operators in the UK will be looking for more power in following years.

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