The data centre colocation market is seemingly divided. Industry trends, plus the impact from the coronavirus pandemic, have posed some recent disruptions. Other trending topics include supply chain issues and cost of key materials and energy.
Each of these challenges continues to play a large role in shaping the market for colocation. In addition, as demand for data centre services only continues to grow in an increasingly digital world, demand for space is coming from two opposing camps.
This is the assessment of expert Giancarlo Giacomello from Aruba. Giacomello had the following to say to Digital Journal on the current state of the colocation market: “At the moment, the colocation market is split in two. On one side you have this huge demand from the big players that are buying huge volumes of data centre capacity across the sector to feed consumer demand for cloud-based types of services.”
And the opposing camp? Giacomello says: “On the other hand, you have SME type businesses who are looking to secure their data and services, so looking for as much resiliency as possible, as well as high rating certified infrastructures.”
There is some commonality, which Giacomello explains: ”They’re looking for the best resiliency and reliability of facilities to ensure their data and services are safe and readily accessible at all times. These two types of demands are quite evident in today’s market and something we’re seeing more of.”
Drawing on the global health emergency, Giacomello opines: “Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the colocation market. We had to re-learn how to manage teams, projects, in order to be able to guarantee to our customers to match their deadlines even in that critical situation.”
With things not yet back to normal, Giacomello states: “The greater long-term effect of the pandemic will certainly continue to affect availability and costs of materials to operators out there.”
As example, Giacomello finds: “Metals like copper have more than doubled in price and what used to take around 4 weeks lead-time for the delivery now it could require 8 or 12 weeks. That’s also completely changing how we’re managing projects and how we’re expensing them, so a big challenge for all colocation players in the future will be to adapt to this new ecosystem.”
In terms of other challenges, Giacomello puts forward: “On top of all this is the sudden and unpredictable variation of energy costs and their continuous rise. This represents a huge risk for all businesses out there, jeopardising the growth and development of the entire sector. However, the market demand and growth seems to hold despite this, and we’ll continue to serve customers, building better, more resilient and efficient infrastructures.”
