Greg McCulloch, MD of Interxion UK says that as the demand for storage continues to grow unabated, global power supplies start to dwindle and costs continue to rise, what is the future for data centres and their ability to source power and procure land? 

Recent IDC* analysis has indicated that global data centre electricity usage roughly doubled between 2000 and 2005 (to c. 158 billion kWh with Europe accounting for more than a quarter of all consumption) and according to IDC projections, the total volume of corporate data worldwide for 2010 is likely to be near a zetabyte (one billion terabytes) compared to 255 exabytes that was projected in 2007**. So is there any hope for data centres or will the availability of power and land simply dry up?

Can you get the power you need to run your data centre?
The above figures paint a bleak picture, but it is actually a common mistake to assume that power isn’t available. Currently we operate 40,000m2 of colocation space within 24 data centres in 11 countries across Europe and have 13MW of power available in the London data centre alone, more than enough to meet our customers’ current and future power requirements. We are also currently negotiating for additional power for future build outs and based on our conversations with suppliers we are confident we can secure it – in London and across the Group.  
The trick to securing power is planning. There is the power out there, but early negotiations with commercial power suppliers are key. The main stumbling block is trying to source the required engineers to work on the substations to route power to your particular data centre. This process is currently made more difficult by the fact that suppliers are focusing their resources on the 2012 Olympics and as a result are stretched.

This has forced data centre providers to plan even further ahead and take into account the additional time lags and delays that may occur due to planning restrictions and wayleaves to dig up the roads. In our experience it’s best practice to calculate as accurately as possible your future power demands and then negotiate these well in advance of your current supply running out, getting the engineers in place ahead of time to then complete the build outs when required.  It’s most important to ensure you take into account future technology trends and indeed seasonal fluctuations in power demand.  

Do you have a choice of power supplier?
In some cases a further stumbling block is the fact that some data centre providers are restricted to dealing with a single commercial power supplier in their particular region so they don’t have the luxury of choice. This obviously puts extra time and financial pressures on data centres and can cause additional delays in securing the required power supply.

Is there land available with adequate connectivity?
Finding the appropriate plot of land served with a high density connectivity of providers is an ever-increasing issue for data centre providers. It’s not so much a case of land not being available, but more the fact that a large majority of the land on offer has limited connectivity options, compared to a central hub like London. 
Two or three years ago there was a mass exodus by data centre providers to places like Slough and Gatwick to take advantage of cheaper land. However, the fibre routes, connectivity and exchange options available on these sites were and are limited. For many data centre providers, especially those that offer carrier independent colocation, a central, connected location is key to providing their clients with exchange options, low latency and a connectivity-rich environment. Essentially land is available but, as with power, good planning is critical, especially when sourcing sites in any large conurbation. 

Should you be looking abroad to house your data centre?
As well as the land options available in the UK there has been much made of the benefits of housing data centres abroad. For example free-cooling in Iceland and significantly cheaper plots in rural Europe have driven this trend. So should companies be looking to house data centres abroad? We sometimes advise our customers to house non-critical data and applications in some of our European facilities, as these offer significant costs savings. However, we also state that they should house their core applications in a central location if latency is an issue. At the same time, we have also seen that many of our customers still want to be near their business-critical data and have the ability to physically access their racks with ease. So whilst housing data abroad has its benefits it is far from being the panacea.      

What is the outlook over the next 10 years for power and land?
Over the next ten years we will see the procurement of both land and power becoming an increasingly difficult task, especially for those looking to build in any large conurbations. This will lead to organisations having to optimise their current infrastructure and utilise future technologies. Power costs are likely to rise as well, as governments look to introduce carbon taxes on those who consume the most power. However, centrally located data centres within business and financial districts will continue to be in high demand, as it is human nature for organisations to want to be near their most critical asset, data.
 
References:
* IDC Analysis

** The Expanding Digital Universe, John F. Gantz, Project Director, IDC Whitepaper March 2007