Study Shows New Data Center Growth Slows In Q4 2014

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

A study by information technology research and advisory company 451 Research has found that the worldwide data center install base grew at just 0.2 percent during Q4 2014, reaching a total of 4.3 million data centers and IT sites. Part of the reason behind this slump is a decline in traditional enterprise demand, especially in mature markets. According to the research, the decline was offset, however, by an increasing demand from cloud, services providers, and multitenant data center (MTDC) vendors looking for large premium and hyper scale facilities.

The study, “The Voice of the Enterprise: Datacenters” was based on approximately 900 online surveys completed by senior IT professionals in October 2014, and 25 interviews with industry-leading enterprises, the study presents a thorough analysis of business/industry challenges and data center strategies going forward.

From a square-footage perspective, enterprises control 83 percent of the worldwide market, while MTDC and cloud providers control 12 percent and 5 percent, respectively. As enterprises increasingly turn to third parties rather than investing in their own data center spaces, those percentages will begin to change, according to the report. 

“Investment in new data center space by traditional enterprises is being propped up only by the sheer force of growing organic demand for IT resources. Almost all the overarching market trends are working against the need for enterprises to build out more of their own data center space,” explains Daniel Harrington, research director of enterprise data centers for 451 Research.

Harrington adds, “The bright spot for facilities vendors being that those cloud and MTDC providers will need to accommodate  the growing demand for outsourced IT resources with their own facilities, albeit fewer and more efficient ones.”