Intelligent Data Centres Issue 21 | Page 20

IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN THAT DEMAND FOR EXTRA CAPACITY WILL OUTSTRIP THE MARKET ’ S ABILITY TO SUPPLY IT .
DATA CENTRE PREDICTIONS

IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN THAT DEMAND FOR EXTRA CAPACITY WILL OUTSTRIP THE MARKET ’ S ABILITY TO SUPPLY IT .

Prices will rise
One thing is certain , demand for additional data centre capacity will increase even more as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and , whenever demand exceeds supply , prices inevitably rise . Only the strongest and financially fittest businesses will survive the lockdown period and these businesses , Alphabet , Microsoft and AWS etc . will be in a position to buy up any capacity that does exist . They already have strong business models and a pseudo monopoly position between the three of them . I think we will see their position strengthen even more and that cannot be a good thing for the industry as a whole and for the businesses and consumers that need cloud-based services .
Edge will come into its own
A positive that should derive from the current situation is a move to nearshoring or on-shoring of critical services . Clearly , from recent events , healthcare manufacturing , healthcare consumables and pharmaceuticals production will migrate closer to home , but what about data ? We have seen a trend towards near-shoring data centres as a result of the rise of Edge Computing and AI , and this is likely to accelerate with the realisation that data , data centres and access to the Internet are critical elements of our national infrastructure . The opportunity is for home-grown businesses like ours to play a greater role in designing , constructing and providing the critical infrastructure of the future . ◊
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