Data Center Insights: What Customers Want

To track trends in one of real estate’s most dynamic new specialties, Digital Realty Trust Inc. commissions Forrester Research to survey data center customers annually about their plans, needs and priorities. This year’s Web-based study draws on responses from senior IT professionals and corporations with annual revenues of at least $1 billion or a minimum of 5,000 employees.

Among other findings, the 2013 study revealed the following highlights:

• Fifty-four percent plan to lease space from a wholesale data service provider, up from 45 percent in 2012.
• Security is the most important factor in choosing a new location, cited by 30 percent of respondents.
• Among those planning to expand this year, New York City is the most popular location, named by 65 percent of respondents. Los Angeles took second place with 47 percent, up from 33 percent in 2012.
• Dallas, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay, Phoenix, Atlanta, Denver and Northern Virginia round out the top U.S. locations.
• The top international markets for locating a new or expanded data center are London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Mumbai, Barcelona and Madrid.

For more about Digital Realty and the global data center market, see the August issue of CPE.

Source: Forrester Research Inc., for Digital Realty Trust Inc.

Source: Forrester Research Inc., for Digital Realty Trust Inc.

Source: Forrester Research Inc., for Digital Realty Trust Inc.