• By: Rich Miller
  March 12th, 2012
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The growth of cloud computing is prompting increased demand for data center space in North America, according to a survey commissioned by Digital Realty. The growing interest in cloud adoption, along with the resumption of planned expansions that were deferred due to the economy, suggests robust growth ahead for the U.S. data center industry.

Ninety two percent of IT decision makers at large companies said they will “definitely or probably” expand their data center footprint in 2012, the highest number in the six-year history of the survey by Digital Realty, which is the largest operator of data center facilities. By comparison, 70 percent of respondents said they had expanded their data center operations over the past two years, suggesting

An intriguing data point: 41 percent of companies that are adding space reported plans to use a containerized module as part of their expansion, suggesting that a growing number of companies are open to deployments that use modular designs to house either IT capacity or power and cooling infrastructure.

Customer Sentiment Improving

The survey, conducted by Campos Research, included 300 IT decision makers at large corporations in North America with annual revenues of at least $1.0 billion and/or at least 5,000 employees. It’s not surprising that Digital Realty believes demand will be high, since the company is in the business of building and leasing data centers. But the findings are useful in tracking customer sentiment about their requirements for data center space.

“These results are consistent with what we are seeing with our customers across our portfolio,” said Michael Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty. “There are a number of factors that we believe are driving the increase in demand for data center space as reported in the survey. These include the continued adoption of public, private and hybrid cloud computing solutions, pent up demand from enterprise customers that had deferred expansion plans in previous years due to economic uncertainty, an improved economic outlook, and the proliferation of data requiring appropriate computing and storage environments.”

The survey results provided some hints at the scope and breadth of customer expansion plans for 2012:

• 38 percent expect to expand in three or more locations.
• 54 percent expect to pursue projects of 15,000 square feet or more in size.
• 49 percent expect their data center projects to be supported by at least 2 MW of electrical power, including 12 percent reporting data center projects that will have 5 MW or more of electrical power.
• 50 percent of companies planning North American expansions also expect to expand in Europe or the Asia Pacific region, and 21 percent reported plans for projects in South America.
• 4 percent of companies reported having no plans for data center expansion in 2012 or 2013.

The most frequently cited locations for expansion in the U.S. include, in order, New York/New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco Bay Area and Phoenix.

Article source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/03/12/cloud-growth-spurs-demand-for-data-centers/

The study by Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology, released Tuesday, adds transportation costs to the usual measure of affordability – housing prices. It concludes that the average Bay Area household spends 48 percent of its income on housing and transportation. And while it probably doesn’t seem like it – especially at the gas station – the cost of transportation in the Bay Area is the second lowest among major metropolitan areas, behind only New York.

Affordability, according to the study, is a combined housing and transportation figure below 45 percent.

Scott Bernstein, the center’s president, said the affordability index aims to provide planners, decision makers and everyday folks with information about the true costs of choosing where to live. This year’s survey, based on figures from the Census’ American Communities Survey, has been updated to include about 89 percent of the nation’s population.

Often, Bernstein said, people in search of more affordable housing will head to the distant suburbs where real estate is cheaper but won’t always consider that transportation is costlier because driving distances are longer and public transportation is often unavailable.

“You think you’re buying a cheap house 30 miles out,” he said, “but it’s 10 o’clock at night, and you need a gallon of milk. You have to get in your car, drive out of your subdivision down a two-lane road, get on the freeway and drive 10 miles. You just spent a gallon of gas to get a gallon of milk.”

The study allows visitors to the center’s website, www.cnt.org, to see and compare the costs in 180,000 neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, denser communities with access to public transportation fare better than far-flung suburbs.

In the Bay Area, for instance, San Francisco households spend 39.5 percent of the average income in the region on housing and transportation compared to 41 percent in Oakland, 43 percent in Berkeley, 50 percent in San Rafael, 51 percent in Antioch and 59.1 percent in Brentwood.

Jennifer Yeamans, a lifeline and equity planner for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, has used affordability data from earlier versions of the study and compared it against Bay Area foreclosure data, finding far more foreclosures in areas with high transportation costs. She also points out that the parts of the Bay Area in which real estate prices have remained most stable are those with walkable neighborhoods and better access to transit.

Bernstein said he hopes planners will use the study information to help design better communities that don’t require households to own multiple cars.

“I would really be thrilled,” he said, “if someone would wave a wand and require that these numbers be listed right next to the sales prices of homes.”

The research should be used, Yeamans said, to help people realize the trade-offs in choosing where to live, not to drive everyone toward settling in an urban community with a BART station down the street.

“This is an opportunity for people to truly understand what their preferences cost,” Yeamans said. “Some people prefer to live in low-density areas, some prefer to live in walkable neighborhoods. That’s not to say everybody should do this or everybody should do that.”

What it costs to live in Bay Area

The typical household spends this percentage of the average Bay Area income on housing and transportation combined:

San Francisco: 39.5%

Santa Clara: 47%

Alameda: 47%

Napa: 50.7%

Contra Costa: 52.8%

San Mateo: 53.3%

Solano: 54%

Sonoma: 55.2%

Marin: 56.3%

Source: Center for Neighborhood Technology

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Twitter: @ctuan. mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page C – 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/28/BATV1NDJAQ.DTL