This report called 'Weathering the Storm' analysis the issue of the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Data Centre segment worldwide, with an analysis of short term and  long term impacts, capex and revenue changes and operational and expansion made during the first quarter of 2020. It considers the operations and management strategies of the key Data Centre Providers.

We provide an overview of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Data Centre segment worldwide, in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific and China. 

The report considers the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the key terms of Data Centre demand, Data Centre operations and Data Centre construction. The report analyses the drivers for Data Centre growth and contrasts pre-Covid-19 forecasts for Data Centre space (measured in m2) against the most recent results posted by Data Centre Providers worldwide and provides a revised forecast for Data Centre growth by region for the period from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021. 

The majority of Data Centre Providers believe that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will be short-term only, with Chinese Data Centre Providers already resuming their construction programmes (as of the beginning of May 2020). Additionally, the large cloud service providers have emphasised the continued medium and long-term growth prospects, even though the sourcing computer hardware and the build out of existing construction projects have been delayed in the short term. 

The period of the pandemic has been associated with the rapid growth of e-commerce, online gaming, online healthcare and social media including online video conferencing exemplified by the rise of Zoom video conferencing.