New research just undertaken by GVA Connect, the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA, showed the take-up of data centre space by end-users such as enterprises and government agencies was up by a massive 67% over this time last year.
“We reported in February data centre operators had ramped up their acquisitions of data centre space to some 830,000 square feet,” said GVA Connect director Charles Carden, “this new research shows that operator commitments are now being rewarded with significant extra uptake of both co-location and wholesale data centre space by end-users.
“Total take-up (including operators and end-users) for the quarter to March 2014 remained comparable to the same period in 2013. Within that, the end-user volume transacted jumped from a total of 3MW in Q1/13 up to a total of 10MW in Q1/14. The average transaction was over 500kW” said Carden, adding the team at GVA Connect is anticipating an increase in transactional activity from Q3/14 onwards, driven largely from the US.
The new GVA research showed once again London, as a leading international data centre hub continues to account for the significant proportion of activity, Carden revealed over 80% of total UK take up in Q1 was within the London Synchronous Locations (locations which deliver round-trip latency of under three milliseconds) with the remainder of uptake spread across the UK.
Said Carden, “this research indicates a healthy increase in overall data centre activity in the UK and continued occupier confidence following the noticeable increase in market enquires reported in Q4/13.”
GVA Connect sees the trend for IT outsourcing as set to continue as corporate IT budgets are relaxed and occupiers seeks to secure capacity on a scalable, OpEx basis to accommodate future demand.
The 60% increase in end-user uptake is of course good news for existing data centre operators and highlights the positive outlook for those data centres such as the Nottingham Portal recently added to GVA Connect’s client list.
An existing 1.6 MVA data centre site with a number of revenue generating customers, ‘Nottingham Portal’ has significant potential for expansion – all of which is fully consented.
Commenting on the Nottingham Portal, Carden said, “just one mile from Nottingham city centre, the site is centrally located in the UK and, having been originally developed by British Rail in the 1980s for its own IT needs, is alongside what was the British Rail National Fibre Network and as a result is extremely well connected.”
Carden concluded, “Cloud service providers, technology and media-related requirements continue to dominate the market and we predict further success with both acquisitions and disposals on behalf of clients and a high activity year for GVA Connect as a data centre property agency.”
