New Research on U.S. Data Center Markets

Do data center professionals in Dallas see the industry differently than their counterparts in New York? How do the views of government data center specialists in Washington compare to those of Internet executives from Silicon Valley?

New research from DataCenterDynamics brings together snapshots from major data center markets around the U.S. throughout 2007, and provides interesting insight into the leading areas of concern and opportunity. The research, gathered at DataCenterDynamics events, provides individual market reports for New York/New Jersey, the Washington DC area, San Francisco/Bay Area, Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and Chicago.

DataCenterDynamics says the results suggest that about $6 billion was invested in U.S. data centers in the past 12 months, while $8 billion in spending is likely in the next 12 months. The individual market reporting the strongest expected data center investment was New York, where demand is driven by financial institutions represented at the DataCenterDynamics event.

The survey found that the average American data center facility has an average power use of 5.5kW per rack, with a maximum rack load of 11.6kW. That's slightly higher than the power usage in Europe, where the average company-wide average is 4.1 kW and the maximum was 10.1 kW a rack.

The report, US Datacenter Infrastructure Trends and Market Attitudes, is the second in a series of regional reports tracking the changing investment landscape and the uptake of new technologies by datacenter operators. The full report can be purchased online at the DataCenterDynamics web site.