Survey: Lack of Data Center Space in London Points

A sample survey of companies participating in the forthcoming DataCentres Europe event (www.datacentreseurope.com) reveals that space in facilities in London - one of Europe's key hubs - is now at a premium, with little capacity available.

Data centres in some European cities still have an excess of space, and some industry commentators believe that customers may begin to see the advantages of locating in other European cities.

"With the London data centre market close to being sold out again for the first time since 2000, it will be interesting to see whether this will kick-start the markets across Europe at long last," comments Tim Anker, founder of The Colocation Exchange . "Locations such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris may stand to benefit from frustrated demand found in London."

According to Mike Tobin, CEO of the independent data centre operator, Redbus Interhouse, "The barriers to entry are significant. It is incredibly difficult to build new data centres in London now, to have the right level of power available and to have the connectivity partners to create sufficient market competition to ensure that the customer gets the best deal."

Over the past two years, data centre providers have been quietly increasing their revenues and building up strong businesses. Redbus Interhouse estimates that data centres are growing at around 30% per annum and other operators quote figures near to this mark.

Telecity is one such provider, and it has found that the new companies coming into their facilities require more solutions, which creates additional revenue opportunities.

The European Data Centre market will be addressed in detail at the industry event Data Centres Europe 2005, which takes place on 28th and 29th April in London.