There exists immense opportunity for both power and cooling systems in rapidly proliferating large data centers across Europe. Already, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and cooling markets are registering steady revenue growth. Ongoing challenges like price pressures are poised to be offset by the continuous demand for power and the increase in heat loads.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Analysis of Power and Cooling in the European Datacentre Market, finds that the total UPS segment in the data center market in Europe is estimated to rise from €730.0 million in 2010 to reach €1328.1 million by 2017. Over the same period, the total precision air conditioning system (PACS) market in Europe is set to expand from €313.6 million to €452.4 million.
“The escalating demand for power and intensifying heat loads in servers will drive the power and cooling market in datacentres,” notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Gautham Gnanajothi. “The need for continuous power availability is becoming crucial even as the increase in high density servers in data centers will result in tremendous heat loads, triggering the need for effective power and cooling systems.”
Spiralling heat loads are becoming a major area of concern in the data center market. Heat build-up in electronic equipment causes a significant slowdown in performance and productivity. This is highlighting the importance of advanced, innovative and energy-efficient cooling mechanisms.
While such trends augur well for UPS and PACS suppliers, the growing price consciousness of data center customers is becoming a cause for concern. Greater price sensitivity is affecting the margins of PACS and UPS manufacturers. Intensifying competition and the lack of product differentiation also threaten market prospects.
Customers are wary of adopting PACs due to their high capital costs. Moreover, low customer awareness about the energy efficiencies offered by cooling solutions is impacting uptake.
“Tremendous effort is being expended to educate customers about how the usage of energy efficient cooling solutions can lower operational costs as well as the total cost of ownership,” concludes Gnanajothi. “As demand surges, price, technical and supply support as well as product development will all emerge as key competitive differentiators.”
