Research Study Indicates Llack of Industry Standards Is Slowing Green Datacenter Initiatives

San Francisco, CA – Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading owner and manager of corporate and Internet gateway datacenters, is reporting results from a new study of green datacenter trends that show significant changes since 2007. The findings are based on a survey of senior decision makers at leading North American corporations who are directly responsible for datacenter strategy, planning and technology. Digital Realty Trust conducted a similar study in 2007, one of the first in-depth analyses of green trends in the datacenter industry.

“When we conducted our first green datacenter study last year, respondents expressed concern about the lack of industry standards for green datacenters. The impact of that concern is very evident in this year’s survey. Companies are looking for leadership and clarity on how to define a green datacenter, how to design their green datacenter plans, and how to put them into action,” said Jim Smith, Vice President of Engineering at Digital Realty Trust. “In the past, the question may have been how to convince companies of the value of green datacenters. The good news is that is no longer a problem. Companies are convinced. The challenge is that the datacenter industry needs to step up and show the way with clear standards.” 

Key findings from the research study are provided below and will be discussed in an upcoming Webinar hosted by Digital Realty Trust:

·         51 percent of companies have a green datacenter strategy, a decline since the 2007 study when 55 percent of companies answered the question affirmatively. This indicates that corporate adoption of green datacenter strategies has stalled or perhaps taken a step back since last year.

·         82 percent of companies say there is no clear industry standard for green datacenters. This figure is up from 75 percent in 2007, indicating that there is more ambiguity than clarity in the industry. One area where there was broad agreement was in what elements an industry standard should comprise. The top two responses were:

o    94 percent agreed that a standard should outline how to achieve efficient power usage (i.e. maximizing energy delivered to IT equipment by the facility)

o    83 percent agreed that a standard should also outline how to enhance HVAC systems to use energy more efficiently

·         In the absence of green datacenter standards, companies site LEED certification as the best alternative. More than 60 percent of companies look to LEED general building standards as a model for their green datacenter initiatives. The Green Grid was also cited as a resource for green datacenter initiatives, indicating that the consortium is gaining visibility and momentum in the industry.

·         Of the companies that do have a green datacenter strategy, 82 percent are taking a holistic approach that encompasses not only servers and other datacenter hardware, but also facility design and datacenter operations. This is nearly identical to the 2007 metric (81 percent), indicating that companies understand the value of taking a comprehensive approach that maximizes energy efficiency by addressing not just the equipment in the datacenter, but the facility itself.

·         Only 18 percent of companies are planning to include carbon credits in their green datacenter plans, down from a figure of 25 percent in 2007. This indicates that companies are focusing on directly reducing their datacenter energy consumption rather than displacing it through carbon credits solutions.

“Digital Realty Trust takes great pride in being an industry leader in green datacenter design and operations.  We are also committed to support industry-wide initiatives to increase datacenter efficiency,” said Jim Smith. “One of the key ways we are doing this is by sharing energy efficiency data. We are the first company in the datacenter industry to do so, in response to customers and other end-user organizations who want data and benchmarks that educate them about the energy efficiency of competing facilities and about how their datacenter can support their corporate green strategy.”

Smith added, “We also support industry-wide green datacenter initiatives by continuing to be an active member of The Green Grid, which is doing excellent work establishing standards and best practices for datacenter energy efficiency. And we will continue to be a leader in applying LEED and BREEAM specifications to our building design and operations. Although these specifications are not designed specifically for datacenters, they have tremendous value for institutional building owners like Digital Realty Trust. They provide a holistic view of how buildings impact our environment and a proven methodology for minimizing that impact.”

Digital Realty Trust is also publishing results from a Europe-focused study of green datacenter trends. The European survey shows that green datacenter initiatives currently have greater momentum in the U.K., Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland. For example, 60 percent of European companies have green datacenter plans, more than 70 percent plan to make green upgrades to existing facilities, and a significant portion have already begun requiring their datacenter vendors to have a green strategy that meets their standards. The European study does, however, find that companies in those countries see a similar lack of industry standards, an issue that could slow momentum as it appears to have done in North America. To read the full results of this European study, visit the “News” section at www.digitalrealtytrust.com.

Digital Realty Trust will host a Webinar about the results of these green datacenter trend studies on Monday, April 21, 2008. The Webinar, entitled “How Green is Green?,” will be conducted by Jim Smith, who will provide additional data and analysis of these trends. To register for the Webinar, visit http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com/webinar_registration.asp.

About the Methodology

Metrics reported in this study are based on Web-based surveys of IT decision makers at large corporations in North America with revenues of at least $1 billion and/or a size of at least 5000+ employees. More than half of the companies have revenues of $10 billion and more than a quarter of the companies have revenues of $40 billion. All survey participants are involved in the process of managing corporate datacenters, implementing new datacenters or expanding existing datacenters; and more than 80 percent of respondents are directly involved in final decisions regarding datacenter initiatives. The survey was conducted in March 2008.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns, acquires, redevelops, develops and manages technology-related real estate. The Company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacenter™ and Powered Base Building™ datacenter solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from information technology and internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 71 properties, excluding one property held as an investment in an unconsolidated joint venture, contain applications and operations critical to the day-to-day operations of technology industry tenants and corporate enterprise datacenter tenants. Comprising approximately 12.6 million square feet as of April 1, 2008, including 2 million square feet of space held for redevelopment, Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 26 markets throughout Europe and North America. For additional information, please visit Digital Realty Trust's website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com.