Research from UK company Keysource has shown that data centers face three main factors in the current market. These are the speed to meet the ever-growing demand, sustainability and the lack of (human) resources.

Keysource’s sixth annual survey found that the biggest challenges facing data centers today are in the areas of speed, resources and sustainability. This was the result of a study involving 250 industry professionals.

Haste and speed

According to Keysource COO Jon Healy, the pressure to work faster and faster is the most worrying point in the report. Speed ​​is regularly given priority over all other things and that is risky, he says.

As a result, three quarters of respondents were faced with quality issues that they would otherwise have noticed and addressed earlier. Therefore, using speed as the main factor to stay competitive may not be the ideal approach.

Wanted: talent

Another problem is the talent pool, which is rather tight. The necessary people with the right skills are increasingly rare on the labor market. This applies to both the data centers and their customers, making this pool even smaller.

Almost half of those surveyed have already outsourced more projects than originally planned. Although the majority acknowledged that this provided better and faster service, it obviously resulted in significantly higher costs in the long run.

Sustainable, but not entirely

There is also positive news when it comes to sustainability. 69 percent of the organizations surveyed have a green budget or sit at the table with various stakeholders to discuss sustainable goals. Since data centers even have an impact on water consumption, this is positive.

On the other hand, significantly fewer seventeen percent actually see sustainability as a priority. Almost a third of those surveyed see a positive development in their own sustainability strategy. Half of them simply don’t have it. In addition, 64 percent have not yet conducted any research on their own carbon footprint and 57 percent do not plan to think about future investments in this direction.

Diploma

In itself, the market for data centers is quite positive, says Healy. The overall risk remains low and the industry has already demonstrated the necessary resilience in the recent past. However, circumstances can change quickly. The influence of technology, regulations, energy sources and, in turn, the number of relevant professionals can play a negative role.

This research shows that the data center market continues to grow despite geopolitical and economic problems in the world, but there is still a three-fold caveat. According to Healy, it is very important that the industry gets to grips with all three issues with sustainability, speed versus quality and the skills required to achieve this.

In the current technological and economic climate, demand for data center capacity will continue to increase. In Europe, for example, it reached an extraordinary peak in the second quarter of this year.