These following 5 predictions, from CBRE's Penny-Madsen Jones can be found in our newly released European Outlook report. For these and other predictions on data centers, cloud, business, IT and investments in the FLAPD markets: download here for FREE our European Outlook report! Five predictions for 2021 Build-to-suit and single let will continue to grow, and become more speculativeThere will continue to be a large interest in build-to-suit, however with a twist. The existing model will change: it’s going to be a bit more speculative. We’ve seen over the last few years that there are new built-to-suit-providers entering the market. Their key proposition is enabling access to new and emerging markets, and especially in those markets where it is a bit more complex for hyperscalers to do that themselves. We’ll start to see providers looking at these markets, trying to get ahead of the curve and increase speed to market. Hyperscalers will see new availability zones in existing markets and new markets to place availability zones. Prelets will continue to grow There are power constraints in some of the key availability zones such as Amsterdam and London. Secondly, there are land constraints in most availability zones as well. This will force hyperscalers to seek for new locations within these markets. And we expect prelets to continue to grow in these - and other - markets as well. Enterprises will look more strategically at colocation We expect to see a lot of enterprises that initially hit pause on their activity, actually push on with some of their deployments into colocation - most likely hybrid cloud and colo, in the coming year. Furthermore, they will be having quite different conversations with colocation providers in comparison to last year. Governments will consider the markets for redundancy and its power use During the Covid-19 pandemic, the market has proven its importance for the resiliency of a lot of the services that have kept us up and running. This has also put a spotlight on the industry in terms of ongoing regulation, and how we protect the resiliency and redundancy of the data center market. At the same time, there is and continue to be, an increased emphasis on the amount of energy use of the sector, and a stronger focus on sustainability initiatives. The face of retail colocation will continue to change - Providers will continue to consider flexibility and portability in some cases The face of retail colocation is really going to change. We are going to have a lot of providers in the market, particularly looking to attract many of the enterprises that are on a journey to cloud because of Covid-19. These enterprises will be considering more options for flexibility, and maybe even portability of services. This will lead to innovative - and reactive - business models regarding the way in which these retail colocation providers will engage with their customers. "In contrast to an industrial day-to-day business, IT projects have a greater planning and implementation horizon. New trends such as the IoT, IIoT and 5G are opening up new applications and services. This requires Edge Data center." Interview with Bernd Hanstein, Director MAK IT bij Rittal GmBH & CO. What are some new developments and initiatives that are exciting for your company in 2020? In 2020 Rittal will officially introduce a series of innovations that will establish an evolutionary platform for IT system solutions. From this, IT infrastructures and data centers can be derived in the respective, special applications. The spectrum ranges from Edge Data center to Core-, Colo-, and Cloud Data centers to solutions for HPC (High Performance Computing) using high-performance air conditioning units. What developments are inhibiting growth today and how do you see innovation or other solutions adapting to solve that problem? The current state of the global economy also affects the IT business, but the situation varies from country to country, from region to region. The key points are the trade disputes between the US and China, as well as the still unclear situation regarding the departure of Great Britain from the European Union. In contrast to an industrial day-to-day business, IT projects have a greater planning and implementation horizon. New trends such as the IoT, IIoT and 5G are opening up new applications and services. But this requires Edge Data center. In this segment in particular, Rittal sees the largest growth market for the future - in addition to the classic core and hyperscale data center. With a coordinated, modular platform for edge data centers, standardized but scalable solutions are offered to end customers in their respective industries. Importantly, edge data centers are always application-driven - so these solutions must be optimally configured for the customer's situation. RITTAL
Rittal, headquartered in Herborn, Hessen, Germany, is a leading global provider of solutions for industrial enclosures, power distribution, climate control and IT infrastructure, as well as software and services. In the Netherlands, the Rittal headquarter is in Zevenaar. Rittal solutions can be found in more than 90 percent of all industrial sectors worldwide. Systems made by Rittal are deployed across a variety of industrial and IT applications, including vertical sectors such as the transport industry, power generation, mechanical and plant engineering, IT and telecommunications. As we are heading towards the end of 2019, we can carefully start making predictions for 2020. What are the growth expectations for the data center, connectivity and cloud industries, as well as the digital economy as a whole? What are the main challenges that we face, and are they different from last year? Stijn Grove, Director of the Dutch Data Center Association and initiator of KickStart Europe 2020, shares his predictions in an exclusive interview. Why is KickStart Europe such an important industry event for the European digital economy?
can overcome these challenges has the future. To move past these challenges and make progress, we need an international platform where C-level executives can share their expertise and where they can debate with each other on a high-level. This is why we’re organizing KickStart Europe for the third time in 2020 – to have an international strategy and networking conference in Amsterdam, a location easily accessible to most. KickStart Europe 2020 Conference is organized by the industry, for the industry. It’s purposefully held at the start of the year so all key parties can get together, meet in person and gain insights for the upcoming year. The conference aims to bring finance and investment parties together with the digital infrastructure industry with, of course, the ultimate goal to further grow the digital economy. What developments are inhibiting growth today and how do you see innovation or other solutions adapting to solve that problem? The pace of growth for the digital economy is incredible. IDC predicts that by 2021 more than 50% of global GDP will come from the digital economy. Indeed, European digital infrastructure is on course
Challenges include issues in the areas of infrastructure, education, sustainability, legislation, and safety. For example, power grids are not growing fast enough to keep up with technological developments, so we need different processes and solutions. We need to review the way we educate the future workforce, putting more emphasis on the quality and promotion of technical degrees.This is essential to meet the growing demand for data center designers, builders, engineers and technicians. Furthermore, we need to push sustainability innovations in energy efficiency and residual heat reuse if we want the energy transition to succeed. Finally, we need better defined policies to ensure privacy, data protection and cyber security. In the end, it’s about the combination of multiple innovations, collaborations and solutions that will make real impact. As representatives of the European data center industry meet at the KickStart Europe 2020 Conference, we want to encourage this collaboration so we can shape an even stronger foundation for our common digital future. What are some new developments and initiatives that are exciting for the industry in 2020? The data center industry is dynamic and ever changing, 2020 will be no different. What we see on a European level is that all policies are increasingly centered around sustainability. This also affects the digital industry in the sense that we must be one step ahead in terms of energy efficiency and circularity. Sustainability must become part of our DNA, it’s the only way ahead. Furthermore, we need to be more actively involved in local communities and initiatives. Data centers, for example, are increasingly part of the city in terms of space and power. To ensure future growth, it is important to invest in sustainable relations with local governments, companies and even inhabitants.
Finally, we see a shift in the industry itself as well. “Colocation is dead” seems to be too much of an overstatement. However, we do see that there is an increasing demand for data centers that offer additional services such as cloud access and connectivity and security services. For data centers to remain successful, they will need to adapt to this demand depending on the specific wishes of their customers. For regional data centers, we see an important role when it comes to the growing demand for edge services. With IoT and 5G emerging, data centers and applications need to be even closer together and here lies an enormous opportunity for data centers that are located outside the data hubs. Together with the international data centers, they are the key to further growth of the digital economy.
*** Do you want to stay a step ahead and give your new year a KickStart? Register NOW for the KickStart Europe 2020 Conference via www.kickstartconf.eu and meet us and 800+ C-level industry leaders on January 27 & 28 in the Amsterdam RAI for Strategy & Networking sessions. About Stijn Grove Stijn Grove is the Managing Director of the Dutch Data Center Association (DDA), the the national trade association for Data Centers in the Netherlands. He also heads the Digital Gateway to Europe organisation to promote the Netherlands as the international digital hub. Next to his work for the DDA and Digital Gateway to Europe Stijn is the initiator of the KickStart Europe Conference, the meeting platform for the data center, cloud and connectivity industry in Europe and beyond. Stijn Grove has previously worked for UUNET, Verizon, Samsung Telecom, Colt and EvoSwitch in Senior Management roles. He is an avid industry blogger, columnist and event speaker. Why is KickStart Europe such an important industry event for you and your company? Amsterdam is a good market for us here at CNet Training, we regularly deliver data centre technical education programs in Amsterdam so it’s always nice for the CNet team to pop over and meet some of our clients, whilst meeting potential new ones too. In addition, the calibre of visitors is perfect, with the right people you can hold the right conversations and ones that can really make a difference and positively impact the future. What developments are inhibiting growth today and how do you see innovation or other solutions adapting to solve that problem? Education, training or professional development, however you refer to it, is often perceived as a way to reward loyalty or teams that are doing well, when in fact it should be the other way around and used to enhance the knowledge and skills of those that actually need it, as a result, training budgets are often restrictive and spent incorrectly. It’s our mission at CNet to engage with HR managers, departmental managers and businesses to change attitudes to on-going professional development. We work with businesses to understand exactly where their knowledge, skills and competency gaps are within their teams and ensure that their training budget, which is usually limited and dependent on performance, is utilised effectively to help businesses continue to develop and improve their workforce and in turn mitigate risk and the large costs associated with human error within mission-critical environments. Businesses need to recognise that their people are their best asset and by valuing teams and providing them with a path of professional development, it will give the individuals the skills, confidence and competence which will enhance efficiency and teams in the data centre and working to mitigating risk, protecting the business and significant costs that come from outages. Having standard professional certifications for individuals throughout the industry will positively impact quality. The solution requires the sector to see the value in and embrace, certification/qualifications associated with professional education. At CNet, we are striving to increase quality and are work with businesses to self-standardise their people. By creating a benchmark, it will continue to raise the bar and increase the quality that is recognised and accepted throughout the industry. If we don’t regulate as an industry, the government will likely impose regulation in the future, and we would be in a far stronger position if we can already show that we have effective self-regulation in place for the people throughout the sector. What are some new developments and initiatives that are exciting for your company in 2020? CNet Training is a company that never stands still, our technical teams are constantly developing new programs and updating existing program content, we work with industry leaders through Technical Curriculum Advisory Boards and Technical Infrastructure Curriculum Forums to ensure program content continues to reflect the actual needs of the digital infrastructure industry. 2020 will see more program launches that will slot nicely into The Global Digital Infrastructure Education Framework which maps professional learning, education, qualifications and official certifications with roles and career progression throughout the industry. We will also be expanding into other new territories with programs in different languages which will allow us to further spread our wings across Europe and the world. CNet Training – Customer Focused, Quality Driven
The Global Leader of Technical Education for the Digital Infrastructure Industry International award-winning education company, CNet Training, has been designing and delivering professional network infrastructure training programs since 1996. Today, officially the largest education provider in the world dedicated to the digital infrastructure industry, including the data centre and network infrastructure sectors, CNet Training is recognised throughout the world for being the global industry leader and is the only industry dedicated technical education provider to award both internationally recognised qualifications and professional certifications, starting at level 3 and culminating with a level 7 Masters Degree program. What are you most eager to share & learn at KickStart Europe 2019? Power systems are subject to a fundamental transformation, with dramatically increasing shares of renewable energies and distributed resources. This results in new services offered in electricity markets, but also in new demands from electricity markets, for instance for frequency control. For data center operators this means new opportunities, if they understand the electricity markets well. What are they looking for when it comes to energy, what new requirements are they facing? To what new approaches what they be open (e.g. bringing their UPS assets to electricity markets to generate additional revenues) and what concerns do they have? Here at KickStart Europe, I'm eager to explain how the energy system is evolving, and what impact has on the data center business and solutions. What future trends do you expect in 2019? For the coming year(s), I expect to see a proliferation of renewable energy adoption, together with the uptake of e-mobility. New energy management solutions for commercial and industrial sites will take shape. Moreover some fundamental techno-economic trends, primarily cost decrease of solar PV and batteries, will continue and result in an increasing number of new opportunities. How do you prepare for these developments? As ABB, we try to be a step ahead and be prepared. We continuously monitoring the market, discuss with the stakeholders and adjusting our strategy and roadmaps. In addition, we introduced a long-term study work stream called “Power Systems of the Future”, in which we analyze how power systems with very high shares of renewable energies can be operated and what solutions will be required for that. What is the biggest challenge for your industry? As the biggest challenge, I see that we should all be ready to capture the various waves coming. The developments in renewables, e-mobility and new market designs shake up the industry and we should be prepared for all of these developments. Another challenge is the adoption of digitalization and cybersecurity solutions across the segment; that will be a challenge in 2019 and beyond. What are you most eager to share with attendees at KickStart Europe and to learn from the speakers? Growth within the datacenter industry seems to be one of two extremes. On one side is edge computing which emphasizes small, often modular designs. The other extreme are hyper-scale operators who build new capacity 100-200 MW at a time. Construction and operation of these large facilities are very similar to the manufacturing and process plants RoviSys has been automating for 30 years. We are eager to share technology and project execution insights that have proven valuable to our customers in the hyper-scale community. In exchange, we hope to learn more about the needs and concerns of the edge-computing market. We are also very interested to hear how geo-political policies such as GDPR might influence the local market. What future trends are you expected to see in 2019? Within the specialty of automation and controls, we see continued interest in technologies that are both open protocol and open integration. Open Protocol means that one brand of device can exchange data with devices from other manufacturers. Open Integration products have the added distinction of being supported by multiple service providers within a geographical area. Technical solutions that are both Open Protocol and Open Integration simplify the operations and maintenance of large distributed datacenters. They also prevent edge installations from being orphaned from the owner’s monitoring and energy management strategies. How do you prepare for these new developments? RoviSys is an independent control system integrator. We prepare for the needs of a growing datacenter industry by building teams of datacenter experts who can deploy many different technical solutions. We are also investing heavily in project execution best practices and safety programs that address needs of the construction community. What is the biggest challenge for your industry, looking at the future? Cyber Security, specifically as it relates to facility systems such as BMS controls, is a serious consideration. It is important that datacenter facilities become as robust as other critical infrastructure (power plants, water plants, transportation, etc..).
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