New Construction Seen for UK Market

There's a building boom coming in England, as half of UK data center operators aim to build new facilities during 2007, according to research conducted at DatacenterDynamics London 2006 on Nov. 28-29. The 128 owner/operators surveyed operate 420 facilities of over 100 racks capacity, an estimated one-quarter of all such facilities in the United Kingdom. These providers spent an estimated $5.9 billion in 2006 on improving and increasing their datacenter facilities. Just under one in four built new facilities in 2006, but half expect to do so in 2007. The number of respondents who refitted or expanded their capacity within existing facilities was 50 percent in 2006, and likely to remain at that level in 2007.

Similar growth is projected by a survey of 122 vendors, whose 2006 revenue from the data center sector is estimated at $3.14 billion and is projected to rise at least 25% into the 2007 calendar year to just over $4.13 billion.

"Growth and the limits on growth have been an ongoing theme in the thirteen cities we have engaged through 2006," said George Rockett, co-founder of the global DatacenterDynamics Conference and Expo series. "The feedback and data we have received from London indicates a rate of new construction and renovation activity equivalent to those we have found in developing markets we have covered, such as India. The idiosyncrasies of the UK market, such as the availability of space and projected limitations of energy availability, add a further level of risk to that level of projected growth."

The London Conference and Expo welcomed 700 personnel from 'end user' organisations and 250 personnel from vendor organisations to 56 presentations and panel sessions over the two days and 56 vendor booths in the adjacent Expo. DatacenterDynamics will return to London in March 2007 with a one day conference and exhibition dedicated specifically to matters of energy efficiency.