TCL Data Centre Pricing Germany - 2014

Introduction - Data Centre Pricing Germany - 2014 to 2019 report
The Data Centre Pricing Germany - 2014 to 2019 report provides a unique overview of pricing for one of the largest Data Centre markets in Europe. 
The report is based on TCL's unique survey of some 72 Data Centre providers with some 217 separate Data Centre facilities across Germany. 

Research Methodology 

The Data Centre Pricing Germany - 2014 to 2019 report was written over the period from January 2014 to the end of February 2014. The report includes both primary research and secondary research. It also includes information from earlier TCL reports (including the TCL Premium Data Centre report) and from the TCL Data Centre Price Tracker quarterly subscription service. 

The report is based on an analysis of some 72 Data Centre providers in Germany which consists of 217 Data Centre facilities. 

The basis of the report is a unique model of the German Data Centre market developed by TCL, which includes power, capacity and pricing by facility and Data Centre provider. The information for the model is obtained from each Data Centre provider as part of a "bottom up" process.

The report also uses telephone and face-to-face interviews along with a TCL questionnaire, which is used to provide information on Data Centre capacity and demand factors for the forecast. The TCL report also uses information which comes from a range of sources including independent experts, Data Centre company presentations, telecoms companies, IT companies and real estate companies. 

The main German Data Centre segments identified in this report 

The model can be segmented by geographical location, and by the 3 main types of Data Centre provider used in the report - whether Carrier Based, Carrier Neutral or a Premium Data Centre provider. The three main types of Data Centre providers used in this report are defined as follows - 

 A Carrier Based Data Centre provider - for the purposes of this report is defined as being a subsidiary of a telecoms provider and is able to provide a limited choice of telecoms networks from a facility. 

 A Carrier Neutral Data Centre provider - for the purposes of this report is defined as being a company, which is not part of a domestic network provider and has multiple telecoms networks from a facility. 

 A Premium Data Centre provider - for the purposes of this report is defined as being able to support high density power per rack combinations of up to 20 kW or above. 

Below TCL provides a breakdown of the numbers of German Data Centre facilities by the three segment types shown in the chart below: 

Figure 6: A chart showing the number of German Data Centre facilities by segment type (in per cent)
 
Source - TCL (Sample size: 217 German Data Centre facilities) 

In Germany, the Carrier Neutral Data Centre accounts for the majority by the number of Data Centres available, with over 100 facilities and the majority of raised floor space in the country. 

The major Carrier Based Data Centre providers such as T-Systems, eunetworks and Versatel together have over 50 collocation facilities in Germany alone. (TCL does not include collocation facilities that are rented from third party providers to avoid double counting). There are almost 100 Carrier Based facilities identified in the TCL survey, but the average size of facility is considerably smaller than for the Carrier Neutral Data Centre segment. 

A breakdown of Data Centre raised floor space in Germany by Data Centre segment is shown in the pie chart below:

Figure 7: A pie chart showing the amount of Data Centre raised floor space in Germany by the Carrier Based, Carrier Neutral and Premium Data Centre types (per cent) 
 
Source - TCL (Sample size: 217 German Data Centre facilities) 

The amount of Carrier Neutral Data Centre raised floor space in Germany accounts for 59 per cent of overall German Data Centre floor space and is the largest Data Centre segment in the country. 

Although Carrier Based Data Centres account for the majority of facilities by number each Carrier based facility is relatively small, and are in the main used for collocation services, with many providers constructing new facilities for cloud and hosting services. 

The Data Centre Tier Classification used in this report

TCL emphasises that it should be noted that the Data Centre Tier grade certification and the Data Centre PUE ratio where mentioned in the report has been obtained from each Data Centre provider and has not been independently verified by TCL in this report.

The Data Centre Tier grade certification is developed by the US-based UpTime Institute and is outlined in the Summary Box below:

Summary Box - The Uptime Institute Data Centre Tier Classification 
The Uptime Institute Data Centre Tier Classification 
The US-based Uptime Institute has created a standard classification of Data Centre resilience which is as follows - 
Tier 1: Single path Power & Cooling distribution; no redundant components - 99.671% availability 
Tier 2: Single path Power & Cooling distribution; redundant components - 99.749% availability 
Tier 3: Multiple path Power & Cooling distribution but one path active; redundant components - 99.982% availability 
Tier 4: Multiple path Power & Cooling distribution with active paths; redundant components - 99.995% availability 

The Data Centre Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio used in this report

The Data Centre PUE ratio that is used in the report stands for "Power Usage Effectiveness" and measures the total amount of power used by the Data Centre against the amount that is used for IT hardware. 

The higher the PUE ratio, the lower the proportion that is used by IT hardware, and the more that is used by the Data Centre facility itself.

As an example, if a Data Centre has a stated PUE ratio of 1.3 - for every 1 watt of power consumed by the IT hardware, another 0.3 watts of power is consumed by the ancillary services of the Data Centre. 

Again, the PUE ratio used by TCL is provided by the Data Centre itself, which has not been independently verified. 

The German Data Centre pricing used in this report 

Pricing is provided in confidence from the German Data Centre providers and is used to derive an average rack space and a rental price per square metre for all operators, Carrier Based, Carrier Neutral and Premium Data Centre providers. Individual operator pricing is not disclosed. (Only individual Data Centre provider pricing that is already published in the public domain is disclosed).

It should be noted that the Data Centre pricing received by TCL is list pricing and does not take into account discounts that may be offered for large space or promotional discounts. All pricing is shown without taxes or VAT. 

For comparison purposes the rack space pricing and per square metre pricing is used with no or minimal power bundles (of 1 kW) or of access to power. 

To derive the monthly rental cost per square metre - when appropriate - is calculated from the rack space rental, which is then divided by 2.5 metres to provide a monthly rental per square metre. 

The other metrics used in this report 

In the report for consistency all power per rack is shown in kilowatts (kW) per rack and in kilowatts per hour (kW Hour). Total power into the Data Centre from the national grid is shown in MegaWatts (MW) or MVA. 

The rack space used in this report is based on a standard 19" rack, with single phase power supply. For average rack space and per square metre pricing TCL excludes bundles of power from the pricing as far as is possible. 

When providing the rack space and per square metre pricing TCL provides standard retail pricing with no or a minimal power bundle (for example when the Data Centre provider offers a power bundle; it is provided with rack space as a standard product offer).