Data centre investment across the globe has increased 22.1% from about $86bn in 2011 to $105bn in 2012, according to report by DataCentre Dynamics (DCD).
Large amount of investment went to the facilities management (FM) and mechanical and electrical (M&E) sectors, including such areas as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), cooling equipment, and data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) systems.
During 2011, the investment on them increased 22.5% from $40bn to $49bn in 2012, the report added.
Investment on IT equipment infrastructure including servers, storage, switches and routers increased 16.7% from $30bn last year to $35bn in 2012.
Power consumption by the data centres increased 63.3% percent across the world 38 gigawatts (GW) which is expected to further increase 17% in 2013.
The proportion of high density racks (those over 10kW per rack) increased 15% in 2011 to 18% this year.
Medium density racks (5-10kW per rack) has increased from 30% to 33% of the total rack investment during the year.
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During the year, the data centre footprint called ‘white space’, grew 8.3% from 24 million m2 to 26 square m2 and report forecasts that by 2013, the footprint is expected rise by 19.2% to 31 million m2.
DCD Intelligence managing director Nicola Hayes said that the forecast for 2013 shows a slower rate of spending 14.5% which is equivalent to $15bn.
"Much of the increase in investment in the [data centre] sector is being driven by growth in less developed markets– regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America are the ones really fuelling global investment levels," Hayes said.
