The data centre industry in Europe is undergoing massive expansion due to cloud-hungry customers.
Speaking at DCD Converged Europe 2015 in London, Jonathan Arnold, MD at Volta Data Centres, said: "From an operator point of view everyone talks about cloud. If you look at your daily lives, your mobile, and so on, everything virtually sits in a data centre.
"We see a lot of demand for cloud, from the media guys. The world today is an always on world."
The need for cloud services, however, is not exclusive to a single industry. John Wilson, relationship director corporate asset finance at Lombard, said: "From a financial point of view, we see a lot of enterprises looking at the opportunity to release the capital, the funding they put into the data centre. Again cloud comes in."
Arnold also said that cloud is the biggest opportunity for colo players out there and that they will have to adapt to the market.
He said: "Reliance is ever more important, more important than 10 years ago. Not doing so could mean the end of business for operators."
As a consequence, firms were urged to ensure they prepare for demand and customers’ needs, because, according to Wilson, "at the end of the day, if a data centre is not fit for purpose it is not going to attract tenancy."
Dennis Beeson , VP at Goldman Sachs, said: "We are going to see a continuing change in data centres. Look at what is your differentiators; what differentiates your data centre from another data centre."
