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Gartner Expects Number of Australian Data Centres to Peak in 2012

Announcement posted by Gartner 28 Feb 2012

Latest Data Centre Trends Will Be Addressed at Gartner’s Infrastructure, Operations and Data Centre Summit, 5-6 March in Sydney

Sydney, 28 February 2012 — The total number of data centres in Australia is expected to peak at 49,577 in 2012, according to the latest data centre market forecast from Gartner. By 2015, this number is expected to decline to 45,545.

“Australian businesses are focused on improving data centre economics, coupled with agility and management,” said Phil Sargeant, research vice president at Gartner. “To achieve this, many are considering virtualisation-led consolidation to migrate three to five physical sites into one to two sites. This may also involve new data centre build-outs in many cases.”

Of the total number of data centres in Australia in 2012, only 10 are classed as large data centres, defined by Gartner as having at least 1,000 racks of equipment and/or at least 20,000 square feet, while 90 are enterprise data centres with at least 250 racks of equipment and/or at least 5,000 square feet. The vast majority are classed as single deployments or small racks in ‘computer rooms’ in smaller companies.

Australian organisations are forecast to spend almost A$2 billion on data centre hardware in 2012, up from A$1.83 billion in 2011. 

A focus group of 15 Australian data centre decision makers in 2011 said data centre modernisation, virtualisation-led consolidation, evaluation of new alternatives for traditional data centre outsourcing and disaster recovery are the key priorities attracting investment in the coming years.

“Australian business leaders we spoke to suggested that overall data centre spending will remain constrained as businesses expect reduced data centre budgets and a greater return on data centre investment, given ongoing cost and performance improvement in these technologies,” said Naveen Mishra, research vice president for Gartner. “Increasingly leaders and CFOs expect that the data centre should drive cost savings, which can then be used to fund new initiatives.”

The focus group confirmed that there is increasing dissatisfaction with the existing data centre outsourcing model in Australia because of high cost structures, support issues and vendor lock-in. Australian organisations in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are beginning to reconsider their decision of continued data centre outsourcing and a few are contemplating starting a new captive data centre build-out due to dissatisfaction, especially where there is a change to the existing model of outsourcing or where organisations are evaluating the cloud.

The Gartner focus group was held on-site during the Gartner Infrastructure, Operations and Data Centre Summit on 15 March, 2011. Based on a target list of 100 participants, 15 were selected representing different industry segments, such as government, financial services, education, insurance, transportation, entertainment and manufacturing.

Additional information is available in the special report "User Survey Analysis: 15 Australian Data Centre Managers Discuss Their Key Priorities for 2012," which is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1862316.

More detailed analysis on the key issues facing the data centre market will be discussed at the Gartner Infrastructure, Operations & Data Centre Summit, 5-6 March 2012 in Sydney. Members of the media wishing to register can contact Susan Moore, Gartner PR at susan.moore@gartner.com. For further information on the summit, please visit http://www.gartner.com/ap/datacentre

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organisations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyse and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

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