by Brianna Crandall — November 21, 2014—Research firm TechNavio released two reports in recent weeks projecting consistent growth in data center facilities in both the United States and the world through 2018. Highlights for each appear below.
Data Center Market in the US 2014-2018
According to the U.S. report, floor space consumed by data center facilities in the United States is expected to boom to 776 million sq. ft. by 2018, as the overall data center market in the country grows at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.21 percent.
“Increased demand for data center services is leading to the establishment of large-scale facilities,” says Faisal Ghaus, vice president of TechNavio. “High-speed communication service providers are setting up new data center facilities to meet the growing computing and storage requirements of the enterprises and end-users. Services are being enabled to provide uninterrupted services to end-users with lower operational costs.”
The new report from TechNavio also pinpoints adoption of portable data centers as a main trend expected to impact the market over the projected period. “The U.S. has been a front runner in terms of adopting technological solutions, and with the increased demand for data center facilities, enterprises are adopting portable data centers that can be easily moved from one location to the other based on changing computing requirements,” continues Ghaus.
According to the report, key vendors like Emerson, Cisco System and IBM Corp are working to consistently offer innovative data center solutions, which will ultimately help the market grow over the next four years. Other key vendors include Avaya Inc., Dell Inc. and EMC Corp., and additional prominent vendors mentioned include Alcatel-Lucent, Bull and Citrix Systems.
The report covers market segmentation, size and forecast through 2018; market growth drivers, including increased adoption of cloud-based services; market challenges such as a lack of foresight in enterprise business; and market trends such as the increased adoption of portable data centers.
Global Data Center Market 2014-2018
According to the global report, the market for centralized computing facilities is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6 percent from 2014-2018, and the uptake of modular data center equipment will help the global market top $206 billion by 2018.
As noted in the U.S. report, technological developments in the data center industry have led to increased computing capacity and smaller equipment size. Many data center equipment vendors, including Avaya, Cisco and HP, have started providing modular computing solutions that are smaller in size and deliver high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for enterprises.
“The reduced size of computing equipment enables enterprises to adopt modular or containerized data center facilities, where the entire data center is hosted within one container,” says Ghaus. “Increased modularity ups the capacity of the data center facility and the capacity of the computing resources that can be hosted in a specific space. This modern modular computing equipment consumes less power and delivers HPC solutions for enterprises.”
