EDITOR’S QUESTION
HOW FAR DO YOU AGREE THAT EDGE
COMPUTING WILL BE THE BIGGEST
DRIVER OF NEW DATA CENTRES?
ontinuing unprecedented
demand for new data
centres, fears around
the shortage of skilled
professionals, concerns
about the future
disruption of 5G and the limited impact of
Brexit are some of the key findings from
the latest industry survey from Business
Critical Solutions (BCS).
C
The Summer Report, now in its 10th year,
is undertaken by independent research
house IX Consulting, who capture the
views of over 300 senior data centre
professionals across Europe, including
owners, operators, developers, consultants
and end users. It is commissioned by BCS,
the specialist services provider to the
digital infrastructure industry.
The report highlights the rising demand
for data centres with almost two thirds
of users exceeding 80% of their capacity
today, 70% having increased capacity
in the last six months and almost 60%
planning increased capacity next year.
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
This demand is currently being driven by
cloud computing with over three quarters
of respondents identifying 5G and
Artificial Intelligence (AI) as disruptors for
the future. With industry predictions that
Edge Computing will have 10 times the
impact of cloud computing in the future,
half of respondents believe it will be the
biggest driver of new data centres.
However, the survey found that the market
remains confident that supply can be
maintained, with over 90% of developers
stating they have expanded their data
centre portfolio in the last six months.
With regards to supply, there are concerns
that a shortage of sufficiently qualified
professionals at the design and build
stages will cause a bottle neck, with 64%
of data centre users and experts believing
there is a lack of skilled design resource
in the UK. AI and Machine Learning may
help to mitigate these issues with nearly
two thirds of respondents confident that
data centres will utilise these to simplify
operations and drive efficiency.
The political uncertainty around Brexit
continues to impact the sector with
78% of respondents believing that it will
create an increase in demand for UK-
based data centres.
However, the overall feeling was that
the fundamentals underpinning the
demand for data centre space, such as
the continued proliferation of technology-
led services, outweighs these concerns
and the European data centre market will
overcome any difficulties that occur.
Commenting on the report, James Hart,
CEO at BCS, said: “The fact that half of our
respondents believe that Edge Computing
will be the biggest driver of new data
centres tallies with our own convictions.
“We believe that the Edge of the network
will continue to be at the epicentre of
innovation in the data centre space and
we are seeing a strong increase in the
number of clients coming to us for help
with the development of their Edge
strategy and rollouts.”
Issue 07
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