Annual Digital Realty Survey Finds Storage Growth, Business Growth, and Virtualization as Top Data Centre Growth Drivers in Europe

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May 21, 2014, 08:00 ET

LONDON, May 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Storage growth, business growth, and the virtualization of critical applications are seen to be the greatest drivers for data centre capacity growth for European companies participating in a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data centre and colocation solutions.

Digital Realty's 2014 survey of data centre trends across Europe canvassed data centre decision makers in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Ireland.

The combined survey results for the five countries revealed that the top expected drivers of data centre capacity growth were storage growth (56 percent), business growth (48 percent), and virtualization (42 percent). The next tier of drivers included big data (36 percent), business continuity (26 percent), and data centre consolidation (23 percent).

Key drivers by country were as follows:

UK: Storage growth, business growth, virtualization, and big data
Germany: Storage growth, virtualization, big data, and business growth
France: Storage growth, business growth, virtualization, and big data
Netherlands: Business growth, storage growth/big data (tied), and virtualization/redundancy (tied)
Ireland: Business growth, compliance/consolidation (tied), and business continuity

Commenting on the survey findings, Bernard Geoghegan, Managing Director, EMEA, for Digital Realty said, "This information further enhances our understanding of current and prospective client requirements. In a notable shift from last year, the top three drivers of data centre capacity growth were storage growth, business growth, and virtualization, versus security, disaster recovery, and the supply/reliability of power in the 2013 survey. This is consistent with the shifting view of the data centre from a cost centre to a revenue centre, and a critical component of underlying business growth."

Strong Expansion Plans

When asked about future plans for data centre capacity planning, almost all respondents (92 percent) indicated they are planning some form of expansion within the next four years.

More than one-third (38 percent) of respondents expected their existing data centre budget to grow between 5-10 percent in the next 12 months, with an additional 7 percent of respondents expecting to increase their data centre budget by more than 10 percent in the next 12 months.

Key Considerations: Network Connectivity Options and Resiliency

When making decisions about new data centre facility investments, the most important considerations for respondents were the data centre's network connectivity options (81 percent), including carrier availability and carrier density. The next most important considerations were the resiliency level and availability of the data centre facility (79 percent), the cost of energy at the data centre location (77 percent), and the level of control over the data centre facility (76 percent).

Survey Methodology

In this Digital Realty-commissioned study, Forrester Research conducted an online survey of organisations in the US, UK, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Hong Kong, France, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Ireland to evaluate their data centre investment plans and drivers. Results of the European portion of the study are based on surveys of 266 senior-level decision makers with responsibility for data centres. Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of the respondents work at firms with more than 1,000 employees. Survey respondents were located in the following regions: 32 percent in the UK, 28 percent in Germany, 24 percent in France, 10 percent in the Netherlands, and 6 percent in Ireland. The survey was conducted in February 2014.

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. focuses on delivering customer-driven data centre solutions by providing secure, reliable and cost-effective facilities that meet each customer's unique data centre needs. Digital Realty's customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from financial services, cloud and information technology services, to manufacturing, energy, health care and consumer products. Digital Realty's 131 properties, including 13 properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, comprised approximately 24.5 million square feet as of March 31, 2014, including approximately 1.3 million square feet of space under active development and 1.4 million square feet of space held for future development. Digital Realty's portfolio is located in 33 markets throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Additional information about Digital Realty is included in the Company Overview, which is available on the Investors page of Digital Realty's website at http://www.digitalrealty.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to our 2014 survey of data centre trends in Europe, expectations regarding future data centre expansion and spending, demand and demand drivers, growth drivers for data centres, and our strategy and plans. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: the impact of current global economic, credit and market conditions; current local economic conditions in our geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to (including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges); our dependence upon significant tenants; bankruptcy or insolvency of a major tenant or a significant number of smaller tenants; defaults on or non-renewal of leases by tenants; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing; risks associated with using debt to fund our business activities, including re-financing and interest rate risks, our failure to repay debt when due, adverse changes in our credit ratings or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan facilities and agreements; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; our inability to manage our growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; our failure to successfully integrate and operate acquired or developed properties or businesses; the suitability of our properties and data centre infrastructure, delays or disruptions in connectivity, failure of our physical infrastructure or services or availability of power; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of such investments; delays or unexpected costs in development of properties; decreased rental rates, increased operating costs or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data centre space; our inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and development space; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; our inability to acquire off-market properties; our inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to reporting companies; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; losses in excess of our insurance coverage; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; and changes in local, state and federal regulatory requirements, including changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as amended, for the year ended December 31, 2013 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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