Coreix Managed Servers

The majority of Britons believe eco-friendly technology is important despite the credit crunch, new research reveals. A report published by Global Action Plan and Cisco found that almost three-quarters (70%) of respondents think green ICT is an important part of the campaign to fight global warming and expenditure on eco-conscious technology should not be trimmed.However, 60% of those questioned were unaware of the government’s Greening ICT strategy, which aims to use carbon neutral technology by 2020.

Announced in July 2008, the government’s Greening ICT strategy aims to make the energy consumption of the office estate technology completely carbon neutral in three years’ time.

Source: Cool Earth

The data centre sector must strive to build more data storage facilities in the UK if it is to meet growing demand, it has been claimed. According to communications minister Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report, failure to do so will impact on the British economy.

The report claims that when the recession ends demand for data centres will start to increase and with London being Europe’s largest data centre market and a major location for international business, more needs to be done to ensure it remains at the forefront of the IT sector. “The current demand for highly-connected data centres in the UK points to constraints in supply which is of concern as these facilities can take up to two years to build from initial inception,” the report states. “All of the information on the global Internet, whether for commerce, industry or consumer consumption, has to be stored somewhere in digital form on servers,” it adds.

Source: Comms Express

Digital Realty Trust is living in a different world than most of the rest of the commercial real estate industry. The locally based data centre REIT’s 11-million sq ft operating portfolio is 95% leased, demand appears high and new average rents are three-times higher than expiring rents. “Despite the deepening economic downturn, DLR is seeing solid pricing and demand in almost all regions and sectors,” JMP Securities Analyst Will Marks said in a client note. “This is difficult for many to fathom, particularly in light of what happened to the data centre market during the last downturn and the severity of this global recession in comparison to the last one.”

“Today, data centres are used by a wide variety of companies, from startups to well-established giants, and are now a necessity for businesses in every sector,” Marks writes. Looking ahead, despite a constrained supply of data centres and sufficient liquidity to develop and meet debt maturities over the next two years, Digital Realty is holding back on pursuing this demand in order to maintain a strong balance sheet with a liquidity cushion, Marks reports. While it may not speculate it certainly will be willing to develop freely on a build-to-suit basis with strong tenants, and Marks thinks the demand will be there.

Source: Globe Street