Sentrum, a specialist in data centre solutions, has said that the UK data centre sector is showing a strong response to increased demands from UK businesses for more flexibility as companies battle to control spiralling data storage costs. The growing need for increased levels of data storage comes hand-in-hand with a new pressure on businesses to manage ‘Big Data’ stores as cost-effectively as possible. 

There have been significant fluctuations in the proportion of companies that outsource at least part of their data centre requirements – 43 % in 2008, 85% in 2009, 67% in 2010 and 75% in 2011 – but the data centre market is now regarded as a mature sector. In fact, 18% of companies have now cited that they plan to outsource in the future, rather than spending more on infrastructure and real estate.

“Data centre operators are responding to this increased demand by guaranteeing improved levels of service and providing added value through consultancy,” said Franek Sodzawiczny, CDO and Co-Founder at Sentrum. “According to our recent research, 54% of senior directors now expect dedicated, specialist, teams to oversee the day-to-day management of their data centre facilities, which shows that knowledge is now significantly improved.”

Sodzawiczny believes that this dramatic increase is as a result of two fundamental issues: the need to accommodate any fluctuations in demand for data storage and the struggle to accurately predict future requirements. This was also further endorsed by the latest Sentrum research report, entitled Data Centre Deliberations, which showed that 17% of data centre specifications were out of date within 12 months or less, whilst the average plan remained current for just 2 years and 11 months.