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Data centre outsourcing on the rise

Survey finds power, space and density demands drive co-location.

By Miya Knights, 12 Sep 2007 at 17:10

A major new survey released today has found demand for co-located data centre services continues to grow as security drops down the list of enterprise concerns.

The survey, which was carried out by analyst IDC and questioned 834 IT decision makers in eight major European markets, found demand and prices will continue to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 22 per cent until 2011.

But in the UK, the number of organisations planning to open new data centre facilities was the highest across all of Europe (36 per cent), while the number planning to collocate over the next 12 months (20 per cent) broadly supported the annual growth predicted by the regional findings.

Anthony Foy, group managing director of data centre collocation services provider and survey sponsor, Interxion said this increased demand stems from the fact that IT infrastructure is no longer seen as a key competitive differentiator.

He told IT PRO: "The thing I found most surprising was that customers always said security was one of their top two concerns when outsourcing their data centres. Now it's dropped down the list and has been replaced with the availability of managed services."

In fact, the cost of staffing and maintaining in-house data centre operations came out as the top concern for those surveyed at 62 and 45 per cent respectively. Security came last (with 20 per cent), behind power, compliance and space considerations.

"Managing power supplies, switches and routers is no longer seen as a core IT requirement, which makes the decision to co-locate easier and helps organisations feel less exposed by using third parties to manage their data centres," added Foy.

Overall the research also suggests companies who require high availability or 24-hour services have an increased tendency to outsource, as do those with higher density. And broadband access, virtualisation technologies and consolidation strategies have all served to make collocating a more attractive option.

As a result of the research, Foy said Interxion has been able to justify increased investment in its data centre facilities, yesterday announcing €90 million (£61.3 million) of extra funding for new facilities and services in Europe.