Research by GVA Connect, the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA, has revealed that UK take-up of data centre space amounted to 830,000 square feet (gross retail area) in 2013 and has risen by 18%.
GVA Connect director Charles Carden spoke to CBR about the increase in data centre activity in the UK.
"2008 was probably the peak of data centre take up in the UK, and post-2008 UK take-up remained fairly constant. It is an encouraging trend in the time of a recession. What we’ve noticed is at the end of last year there was a sharp increase in the number of potential new requirements coming to market, seeking space and capacity in London which is largely being driven from the US. There was also improved occupier confidence and a relaxation of IT budgets."
The research revealed that over three quarters of the 2013 data centre take-up was within the London Synchronous Locations (locations which deliver round-trip latency of under three milliseconds). The second most popular location was Manchester.
Availability of data centre space in the London area is illustrated by new data centre space such as Gateway in London’s West Thurrock. This has the ability to deliver up to 86,000 square feet of data halls, 50MVA of diverse power and 2.0ms round trip latency to the City of London. Similar opportunities currently exist at both London’s Bracknell and Perivale data centres which, like Gateway are available as Shell and Core, Powered Shell or can be delivered as Fully Fitted data centres to specific customer requirements.
Carden predicts that we will see even more data centre space take-up in the next few years. "I think this calendar year we will see take up at the same level as it was for 2013, an increase on previous years, and we’re likely to see further increase in take up in 2015."
GVA Connect also reports a further rising trend in interest for data centre space from corporate users, cloud service providers and media-related businesses, which indicates a relaxation in IT budgets for 2014.
