There are no signs that Data Centre growth is slowing down in Asia Pacific with Frost and Sullivan releasing figures in February that indicate annual growth of 14.6% and revenues exceeding US$10 billion by the end of 2011.
The research shows that Australia, together with Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong are leading the growth, with the internet media, telecom and IT industries accounting for up to 45% of the demand.
However concerns for energy use have seen data centre operators struggling.
Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific analyst, Chengyu Wu, said "Data centre hosting services are a huge, growing business - one that has remained largely insulated from the recession," she says. "As much as two-fifths of a company's total energy consumption is spent on powering data
centres, making the cost of maintaining captive data centres highly prohibitive. Real estate, of course, is the other significant cost."
Frost and Sullivan Director, Jayesh Easwaramony adds, "Power costs can often account for more than 50 percent of the overall operational expenditure (OPEX) of a data centre, while real estate pricing could also seriously inflate costs."
From GreenITStrategy.com's perspective it would seem that even if for no other reason than cost savings, implementing green IT initiatives should be high on the agenda, however Wu points out "...not many data centre owners in Asia-Pac have embraced these [virtualization, green data centres and utility computing] in their facilities due to the skills required and the huge cost involved in implementation and maintenance," she concludes, adding that adoption by users has, likewise, been minimal due to inadequate compliance and governance."
