Data Center Buildouts Maintain Pace

March 12, 2009: Justin Lee / WHIR

Despite a number of companies announcing delays of their data center construction projects in recent months amid a volatile economy, users and industry experts say that the facility buildouts are still going relatively strong, according to a report on SearchDataCenter.com.

In the past few months, Google, Terremark Worldwide, CyrusOne and Verne Holdings, have all announced delays of their data center projects in Oklahoma, Santa Clara, Dallas and Iceland, respectively.

But while construction on financial data centers has slowed down, new government data centers buildouts continue to pick up, according to Richard Sawyer, vice president and engineer for EYP mission critical facilities at Hewlett-Packard.

Companies that are directly related to government objective will soon see significant growth, says Tom Roberts, the data center facility management director for healthcare organization Trinity Health.

Roberts says that as the government continues to digitize all health information, Trinity Health will eventually have to double or triple its data center space over the next couple years.

Additionally, data center colocation continues to be a top priority.

However, there has been a shifting approach in building colocation facilities, says Jim Simonelli, the chief technology officer for APC and a member of AFCOM's advisory board.

He says that companies are more carefully planning these data centers to exact specifications, which can lead to a longer timeframe for construction.

Meanwhile, data center space in London, UK is quickly running out, with 85 percent of the city's facilities more than 85 percent full.

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