Dublin is in the top three data centre locations in Europe, a new survey reveals. The survey, commissioned by Digital Realty Trust, reveals that 60pc of European data centre firms have developed a green strategy that will impact future data centre decisions.
The survey, conducted for Digital Realty Trust by Campos Research & Analysis, is based on interviews with senior decision makers at large European data centre companies.
London is the top location of choice for decision makers to locate their data centres, followed by Paris and then Dublin. After Dublin comes Amsterdam and then New York as locations of choice.
Some 80pc of the decision makers plan to expand their data centres in the coming years. Of the total, 18pc plan to expand in the next 12 months and 67pc plan to expand in the next two years. Some 15pc of data centre expansions are currently in the planning stages.
The average size of the planned expansions is approximately 10,000sq metres.
Disaster recovery initiatives were cited as the main reason for expansions, but the need for more network connectivity, upgraded cooling, more raised floor area, additional power and new applications were cited as reasons.
Nearly 60pc of companies have developed a green strategy for their data centres that will have an impact on their future data centre decisions.
Some 74pc expect virtualisation to reduce their space requirements, but they estimate this reduction to be 20pc or less.
“This study of European data centre initiatives paints a robust picture of the data centre market: broad-based demand for data centre space from a wide variety of industries, with strong growth prospects based on the project timelines looking out two years and beyond,” said Michael Foust, chief executive of Digital Realty Trust.
“The findings revealed that demand was even stronger than our own estimates; it is remarkable to see that in both Europe and the US more than 80pc of companies are planning data centre expansions.”
In May last year, siliconrepublic.com revealed that Digital Realty Trust, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, acquired the former 360 Networks data centre in Clonshaugh for an undisclosed sum from Magnet Networks owner Ken Petersen’s Hibernia Atlantic.
The data centre’s anchor tenant for the Clonshaugh facility is internet retail giant Amazon.com, which will use the facility as part of a 10-year leasing agreement.
It emerged earlier this year that Digital Realty Trust acquired a second Dublin facility for an estimated US$28m. The 120,000sq ft facility has an address at 9 Blanchardstown Corporate Park and was once the property of a data backup company called Data Trust.
By John Kennedy
