Our detailed analysis of the regional UK data centre market covers 50 facilities representing about a fifth of total UK capacity. While this sub-sector has been relatively overlooked by all the excitement focussed on the London and M25 market, we see significant change now taking place and believe total capacity could double over the next few years.
With all the attention in the data centre industry focussed on the huge growth we’re seeing in the London and M25 data centre market, mostly driven by the insatiable demand for wholesale based hyperscale requirements, I have long felt the UK regional market (i.e. that part of the market away from the M25) needed a thorough overview, which I am pleased to present in my new 165-page report and now available on the Colo-X website (via this link).
The Colo-X database now covers 50 facilities in this part of the UK market, of which four are wholesale focussed. Just like the market in London, these four data centres are having a big influence on overall capacity, especially from the two operators who have the most traction so far. However, in researching this report I have definitely felt a sense that things are now changing, even in the retail-focussed part of the regional market, where we’ve only seen one new opening in the past 3 years (being 5Nines in Coleraine, Northern Ireland and lately renamed as Prescient Data Centres).
‘Edge’ beginning to happen with a new specialist operator focussing on this sector and enterprise reassessing IT needs post-Covid
Obviously, we are now seeing the impact on enterprise of Covid-19. The shake-up in how businesses operate is driving numerous small-scale data centre requirements as enterprise clients reassess their office needs. Colo-X has been involved in numerous such transactions and the type of operator we see in the regional market is well suited to this type of requirement.
Furthermore, for several years there has also been much talk (hype?) about ‘edge’ in the industry, but our top-down review of edge demand suggests the timing is still too early. That said, in the course of researching this report we’ve recently uncovered three specific examples of UK edge deployments – and the longer-term drivers are definitely there, as our review highlights. Specialist new operators in the UK such as Proximity Data Centres are focussing on this part of the market with a proposed fleet of 20 national facilities, of which the first five about to go live and now listed on the Colo-X UK data centre data base.
Significant new capacity to come from several sources
With Equinix now planning what we estimate will be 30MW of new Manchester capacity (for MA5 and MA6); a revitalised 32MW potential being brought to market by Stellium in Newcastle; and the really impressive new offering from DataVita in Glasgow (one of the few UK facilities to have both Tier 3 Uptime Design and Construction certifications), it does indeed look like things are beginning to get going again in the UK regional data centre market and I don’t think its beyond the realms of possibility that capacity in this part of the market could double over the next 3 to 4 years, admittedly from a relatively small existing base of 150MW.
Full details of the report, including downloadable detailed summary, can be found on the Colo-X website or using the link at the top of this post. Any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.
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