The Africa & Middle East Data Centre Report - 2011 provides an overview of 15 of the most important Data centre markets across the two regions.
Although the markets are still developing, each of the 15 markets is set for a period of sustained growth for the period from 2010 to 2015.
Raised floor space is set to reach 182,000 m2 across the 15 countries by the end of 2010, and is forecast to rise to over 324,000 m2 by the end of 2015 - a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%.
Data Centre revenue is forecast to rise from $646 million USD per annum to $1,150 million USD per annum over the same 5 year period - a CAGR of 16%.
Pricing for space and per rack pricing is still at a discount to most pricing in Europe. But Data Centre pricing in the Middle East, in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Oman are now approaching European price levels, with average pricing across the region only about 30% less.
But pricing for African Data Centre space is still relatively low, and is at a discount on average of 50% below European levels.
In many markets in Africa there remains limited Data Centre facilities, with the amount of space and the size per facility being especially limited. Most space is in these countries is provided by the ISP or telecoms provider and is shared with an existing switching centre and is generally not purpose built for high density requirements. As a result, Data Centre pricing is low and does not reflect the real cost of providing a high specification facility.
But some countries, notably South Africa, are now experiencing a boom in Data Centre construction and are seeing new Carrier Neutral Data Centre facilities enter the market. The spread of alternative network operators is also making the use of a third party Data Centre location a viable alternative to a self built facility.
Also, countries in North Africa - such as Morocco and Egypt - are also benefitting from the trend towards off-shoring as enterprises and integrators seeking to base their IT development centres in those countries in order to save costs.
"The growth of third party Data Centres is associated with telecoms liberalisation which also creates demand for new high quality space", says Margrit Sessions, Managing Director of TCL. "Over time the impact of liberalisation is felt in reduced connectivity costs which in turn benefits the Data Centre operator and boosts customer demand for its services".
In many countries space is being provided by telecoms and ISP providers, and mobile operators are also entering the hosting and Data centre space in order to capture a share of IT spend from an enterprise customer.
In the Middle east, many of the Gulf States have made investment in telecoms and Data Centre infrastructure a priority in order to spur overall economic development. Countries like the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia are opening high specification Data Centres which can provide a myriad of telecoms, hosting and IT consulting services and applications such as Cloud Computing.
Notes to the editors:
About Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL):
TCL is an international London based research and consulting company which provides subscription-trackers and report-based services on the key trends of Data Centre, fixed Broadband and Mobile pricing across the world. Customers of TCL include mobile, fixed line and Data Centre operators worldwide. Further information on TCL and its activities can be found on its website www.telecomspricing.com
About the Africa & Middle East Data Centres Report - 2011:
Published in November 2010, the Africa and Middle East Data Centres Report - 2011 is the first report published by TCL that provides a comprehensive overview of the changes taking place in 15 key markets across the two regions (7 in Africa & 8 in the Middle East). The report includes a Country Data Centre profile on Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA), South Africa, Tunisia & the UAE. Each profile includes a 5 year raised space forecast, the key Data Centre providers, utilisation and a spread of per rack pricing. There is also a 5 year forecast for revenue and raised floor space across all regions with the key price, service and capacity trends. The Africa & Middle East Data Centre Report - 2011 costs GBP 1,495 for a single user licence. More information about the report contact us in info@telecomspricing.com