Enterprises in Germany are looking to colocation providers to help them manage their data center needs and improve connectivity to their networks, according to Information Services Group (ISG). ISG’s new study finds that demand for colocation services is increasing significantly in the country. Enterprises’ own data centers would no longer be capable of keeping up with the upgrades and improved connectivity needed.
The high cost of regulatory compliance and upgrades to existing company-owned data centers is driving the expansion of the colocation market, the ‘2020 ISG Provider Lens Next-Gen Private/Hybrid Cloud – Data Center Services & Solutions Report for Germany’ report says. Colocation providers also can offer better security and high-availability, while able to set up networking services on short notice.
“The growth rate in the colocation industry in Germany is gigantic,” said Andrea Spiegelhoff, partner at ISG DACH. “Hardly a month goes by without a new data center announced or opened.”
Colocation providers also can offer enterprises savings on energy costs, even as electricity costs in Germany are among the highest in Europe, the ISG report says. Data center operators are increasingly focused on being more energy efficient.
Large colocation providers also provide space for enterprise data centers to grow, the report notes. While data centers built in the past were in the 3,000- to 4,000-square-meter range, new data centers are often 10,000 square meters or larger.
With the growing demand in colocation services, new providers, including some from outside the country, are entering the German market, the ISG report says.
Hyperconverged, Hybrid Cloud
The ISG report also sees a growing demand for hyperconverged systems among German companies. Enterprises are embracing ‘cloud-in-a-box’ hyperconverged product lines, and providers focused on storage and data management are partnering with providers of network virtualization and other services to offer hyperconverged systems. In addition, IT leaders continue to be concerned about where their applications will be hosted and maintained.
Adoption of hybrid cloud services also is growing in Germany. Enterprises are seeing professionally operated hybrid clouds as a combination of the best features of private and public clouds. Hybrid cloud providers can tailor services to customer needs and can offer automated services that help scale systems and avoid duplication of work.
Providers in the cloud and data center markets generally need to offer managed or professional services for infrastructure and applications to be competitive, the ISG report adds. Many providers are now offering automation services, including robotic process automation, to detect anomalies at an early stage, improve incident management and enhance customer experience.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens Next-Gen Private/Hybrid Cloud – Data Center Services & Solutions Report for Germany evaluates the capabilities of 114 providers across seven quadrants: Managed Services for Large Accounts, Managed Services for the Midmarket, Managed Hosting for Large Accounts, Managed Hosting for the Midmarket, Colocation Services, Data Center Security Products and Hyperconverged Systems.
