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The Covid-19 pandemic is set to impact the majority of Data Centres in a positively with growth to be maintained – a new DCP report finds

Published: Tue 9 June 2020

Data Centre Pricing (DCP), the specialists in Data Centre research, has published a new report called Data Centres at a time of Pandemic - Weathering the Storm report. The report provides a global comprehensive overview of Data Centres around the globe including Data Centres in the USA, China and Europe and their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

The DCP Data Centres at a time of Pandemic - Weathering the Storm report finds that the immediate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic include the following –

 

1. Constant Growth - There is continued growth of Data Centre capacity and Capex despite the pandemic conditions.
2. Supply Chain Disruption - But short-term capex and IT supply chains were impacted by the pandemic.
3. Essential Infrastructure - Data Centres are being classified by authorities globally (sometimes for the first time) as critical infrastructure to be maintained.  
4. China led the way into lockdown – China was the first country to experience the pandemic and implemented lockdown and social distancing measures in January 2020.
5. China was the first country out of lockdown - Chinese Data Centre companies implemented social distancing measures and restrictions on visitors with employee screening & from March 2020 resumed Data Centre construction.
6. Automated Data Centre services are becoming more important – as non-essential visits to the facility are banned remote hands services and software automation services are being used instead.

 

The new DCP report considers the growth in selected Data Centre markets worldwide since the pandemic struck, and considers Data Centre responses by region:

 

1. China – The first country to be affected. Data Centres responded with a ban on construction activity, and temperature testing for all employees and a visitor ban. Data Centres were impacted by IT supply chain shortages with a shortage of new servers for installation. Existing power utilisation rates increased as existing servers were run at full capacity.
2. North America – Data Centres have introduced their own business continuity plans, with social distancing and non-essential visits to be stopped. Data Centre Providers have sought to encourage the usage of their “smart hands” services as an alternative to manual intervention and remote working via a software fabric and web portal.
3. Europe – Data Centres have enforced restrictions based on Government regulations of social mobility, but with Data Centre facilities designated as being “critical” infrastructure.
4. Asia Pacific – Data Centres have also complied with Government restrictions such as Singapore’s implementation of a “circuit breaker” approach locking down activity, but with Data Centre’s again being an essential part of Singapore’s “infocommunications” sector.

 

In almost all countries Data Centres have been certified as being critical to the economy, in recognition of the importance made in providing online services - seen in the explosive growth in Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams and Facebook Messenger desktop video conferencing applications.

 

Cloud Service Providers (including Google and Microsoft) have had to suspend their Data Centre expansion, as has Facebook (in Ireland and Alabama) with higher utilisation of servers and power being reported during the pandemic. With the end of the national lockdown in March 2020 Chinese Data Centre construction of new facilities has resumed.

 

But there continues to be expansion of new facilities worldwide with the completion of Data Centre facilities already in the pipeline and the announcements of new construction projects (some of these include Interxion (Paris), Equinix (Singapore), SUNeVision i-advantage (Hong Kong) & RagingWire (Chicago)). 

 

Acquisitions continue to be made during the pandemic. For example, investment firm ColonyCapital in May acquired Brazilian Data Centre UCL Diveo and its Vantage Data Center subsidiary acquired NGD Centre (Wales) in April and Etix Everywhere (Europe) in February 2020.

 

The large Data Centre Providers continue to grow their revenues, with Equinix anticipating growth of 6 to 8 per cent revenue growth in 2020 – after seeing revenue growth of 6 per cent in Q1 2020. But it is the Chinese Data Centre Providers who are seeing the most growth - with 21vianet Group reporting a 25 per cent increase in Q1 revenues & GDS Holdings reporting a 34 per cent increase in Q1 2020 revenues year on year.   

 

After the pandemic Data Centres are to maintain their capacity growth despite the lockdowns, with DCP forecasting a slowdown in eight large markets worldwide of just 2 per cent overall during 2020. The Data Centre sector is demonstrating its resilience even in the most intense downturn.

About the DCP Data Centres at a time of Pandemic - Weathering the Storm report – The new report considers the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Data Centre segment worldwide, with an analysis of short term & long term impacts, capex and revenue changes and operational and expansion made during the first quarter of 2020. It considers the operations & management strategies of the key Data Centre Providers. The Data Centres at a time of Pandemic - Weathering the Storm report costs GBP £395 to purchase on a single user licence. Obtain the summary for free of charge, email [email protected]

 

Further information is to be provided on the Data Centre Pricing website at: www.datacentrepricing.com.

   

About Data Centre Pricing (DCP) – DCP is a brand name for the Data Centre research & consultancy business line of Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL). DCP provides a series of Data Centre Trend Tracker subscription services published twice a year, providing up to date analysis of Data Centre pricing, space, power & build-outs in Europe, the UK, Asia Pacific & USA markets. It also provides the Data Centre Landscape service, an updated profile of the 17 key European Markets, as well as one-off reports on Data Centres in Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. Further information is available on the Data Centre pricing website at: www.datacentrepricing.com.