Next Three Years Could See Disruption to Enterprise Data Centers Due to Space Constraints

By 2011, more than 70 percent of U.S. enterprise data centers will face tangible disruptions related to energy consumption, floor space, and/or costs, according to Gartner. During the next five years, most U.S. enterprise data centers will spend as much on energy (power and cooling) as they will on hardware infrastructure.

"CIOs of large U.S. organizations must prepare for a period of rapid changes in their data centers," said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. "This disruption will be accompanied by a significant increase in capital and operational expenditures. Failure to respond quickly and appropriately to the changing market conditions and technologies will result in needlessly high energy bills, expensive service contracts and delays in implementing new technologies."

Gartner estimates that more than 70 percent of the world's Global 1000 organizations will have to modify their data center facilities significantly during the next five years. The United States has the biggest concentration of large (greater than 50,000 square feet) data centers, the majority of which were built more than seven years ago.

"These legacy data centers typically were built to a design specification of about 100 to 150 watts per square foot. Current design needs are about 300 to 400 watts per square foot, and by 2011, this could rise to more than 600 watts per square foot," Kumar said. "The implication is that most current data centers will be unable to host the next generation of high-density equipment, so CIOs will have to refurbish their established sites, build new ones or look for alternatives, such as using a hosting provider."

During the next two or more years, three main issues will come together and cause the disruption:

• Legacy data centers won't have sufficient power and cooling requirements for the next generation of high-density server and storage equipment.
• The volume growth of IT infrastructure will exceed the available data center floor space for most organizations.
• The need to manage upward-spiraling energy costs through optimization tools and modeling techniques.

During the next three or more years, one of the most-important changes to the U.S. data center landscape will be midsize and large users' increasing propensity to use data center hosting services. Traditionally, the U.S. market has been reluctant to embrace the leasing of space and running IT services from that location. However, during the past nine months, Gartner has detected a shift in attitude that will accelerate during the next few years.

The fiscal equation of an expensive capital cost for a new, owned data center -- as opposed to the much more inexpensive, ongoing operational costs of leased space -- will encourage companies to explore the use of hosted space. The perceived issues of lack of control and weaker security with hosting players generally haven't manifested themselves.

"The net result is that leasing space from a well-designed, modern data center hosting provider can yield financial and operational benefits," Kumar said. "Currently, the market is supply constrained, resulting in a rapid increase in costs. We expect this hosting market to become very attractive during the next few years, so users should move quickly to secure good prices."