Uptime Institute has announced the complete results of its third annual data center industry survey. The survey was developed to collect data on an annual basis around Digital Infrastructure deployment trends, procurement plans, operations and management practices, and other topics that impact the mission-critical data center industry.
Uptime Institute gathers responses via email (spring 2013) from 1,000 data center facilities operators, IT managers and senior executives from around the globe.
As in previous surveys, the sample is heavily represented by large data center operators in North America with a growing number of respondents from Europe, Asia and Latin America.
"One of the most significant points in the survey, data center budgets are growing overall, but the vast majority of growth is occurring in the third party providers, reflecting a shift in spending away from enterprise-owned data centers and toward outsourced options," said Matt Stansberry, Uptime Institute Director of Content and Publications. "This isn't the end of the enterprise-owned data center, but it should serve as a wakeup call. Going forward, enterprise data center managers will need to be able to collect cost and performance data, and articulate their value to the business in order to compete with third party offerings."
Key findings of the survey include:
- Data center budgets: 77% of third-party data center providers receiving large (10% or more) year-over-year budget increases this year, versus just 47% of enterprise data centers.
- Self-reported PUE improved from 1.89 in 2012 to 1.65.
- The percentage of companies pursuing green data center certifications like US Green Building Council's LEED program or Energy Star grew from 48% in 2012 to 58% in 2013.
- Enterprise public cloud adoption rose from 10% in 2012 to 17% in 2013.
- Reported DCIM software adoption is 38% among respondents, with the major driver being capacity planning.
- Prefab modular data center growth has stalled out, and adoption is still in the single digits.
Uptime Institute's complete survey report drills down on many of the data points, carving out segments by company size, geography and vertical industry.
Complimentary access to the full report is available for download with registration at http://uptimeinstitute.com/2013-survey-results.