UK Data Centre Pricing is to Remain Stable From 2014 to 2019

Monday 17 February 2014, Amsterdam

The UK Data Centre market is the largest in Europe with over 650,000 square metres of floor space forecast to be available as of the end of 2014. The report surveys 61 Data Centre providers with 151 facilities across the UK.

The report forecasts that new UK Data Centre capacity is to grow by 22 per cent over the 5-year period. New raised floor space outside the London area is to be the main growth with a range of campus-based and regional Data Centre providers being developed with clusters of service providers developing their own digital ecosystem.

Data Centre space outside of London now accounts for 56 per cent of all raised floor space in the UK including new geographical areas seeing Data Centre expansion include cities such as Slough, Birmingham, Manchester & Leeds.

Standard average UK Data Centre pricing (excluding power) is forecast to increase by only 3 per cent over the 5-year period from 2014, with rack space priced at Euro 1,031 per month.

UK pricing is among the highest in Europe and is significantly higher than in the other largest markets including Germany, France & the Netherlands.

Power for the Data Centre is being provided by operators in a number of ways – including bundles of power ranging from 1kW up to 6kW per rack - and power being included with the rack space. Established Data Centre providers such as TelecityGroup, Equinix & Interxion are offering metered power as standard – charged by kW per Hour - in their new facilities.

Additionally the UK Data Centre market is seeing the introduction of Premium Data Centre facilities, which can cater for standard power of 20kW per rack and are being positioned as a “flexible” facility with a series of data halls catering for different SLAs, tiers of service, power bundles and price levels. Data Centre providers are also increasing the amount of power available in their facilities.

The use of additional power per suite or rack allows the Data Centre provider to bundle power with space – to preserve a higher price point. Additionally older Data Centre facilities – with unused space – are also bundling power with rack space in order to attract customers.

UK telecoms providers are also increasingly renting new Data Centre space from Carrier Neutral Data Centre providers rather than building their own facilities. The trend towards outsourcing of Data Centre facilities is increasing with providers - such as Digital Realty Trust (DRT) and NTT Com - offering purpose-built Data Centres for particular specialist users.

Although there is a range of new Data Centre capacity entering the UK market overall pricing is set to remain relatively stable over time and providers are offering high power bundles suitable for high density IT applications.