TCL Data Centre Pricing UK - 2014

Introduction - The Data Centre Pricing UK - 2014 to 2019 report 

The TCL Data Centre Pricing UK - 2014 to 2019 report provides a unique overview of Data Centre pricing in the UK market - which is currently the largest in Europe by raised floor space and has amongst the highest average rack space pricing per month of all of the European countries of over Euro 1,031 per month per standard retail rack of space. 

The UK continues to see a build out of new Data Centre space. Traditionally Data Centre space has been focussed around the London area, with facilities originally began in the Docklands, and to the West of London. 

But more recently major Data Centre facilities have been constructed outside of London and the South East region with large campus-style Data Centres being established in areas outside London such as Wiltshire, South Wales and North Cambridgeshire. 

These new Data Centre offer each offer potential raised floor space of from 30,000 square metres up to 60,000 square metres (or up to potentially 750,000 square metres in the case of NGD in South Wales) when fully built out - and now aim to attract a wide range of clients, not just the wholesale user. Space is typically being released through the sale of individual data halls, with a gradual build out programme in line with customer demand. 

The use of multiple data halls allows the Data Centre provider additional flexibility. Each hall can be customised for the particular power or redundancy requirements of the client or else can be used to provide general Data Centre space for individual enterprise users. 

Data Centre providers that have specialised in the supply of wholesale space are targeting the medium or large retail segment user through the packaging of power and space as cage or suite space. Space and power is being provided at smaller units bringing the wholesale provider into competition with other Data Centre providers. 

The introduction of new raised floor space by the large Data Centre provider from outside London will provide more user choice but at a lower average price point. The new campus space does not have the same degree of network connectivity as a traditional London based facility but it will provide more options for customers where location is not so important. 

The new space will also put a floor on average market pricing. However it is likely that the existing London-based Data Centre will continue to benefit from high utilisation levels due to the ability to connect to a wider range of networks and clients that will be attractive to financial traders, gaming, content delivery and digital media providers.   

But the spread of low cost campus-style space outside London will allow telecoms, hosting and integrators to rent low cost high quality raised floor space rather than build their own Data Centre facilities. 

Although much of the campus-style Data Centre space is being used for wholesale space, much of the space will re-enter the market as resellers re-sell Data Centre space to retail end-users which will act as a constraint on average market pricing. 

The introduction of new UK Data Centre space is being driven by a relatively small number of new Data Centre providers with very large facilities outside the London area including providers such as NGD, Camro and Ark Continuity alone accounting for raised floor space - when fully built out - of up to 130,000 square metres. More UK Data Centre space is also being added by Equinix, SDC Infinity and DRT. 
Research Methodology 

The updated TCL UK Data Centre Pricing - 2014 to 2019 report was written from the period from the end of November 2014 to the middle of December 2014. The report uses both primary and secondary sources of information. It updates the original UK Data Centre Pricing report first published in 2012. All pricing and forecasts have been extensively revised.  

The report is based on a TCL survey and analysis of 59 Data Centre providers in the UK - which have some 151 Data Centre facilities across the country. 

It draws on information from previous TCL reports (including the TCL Premium Data Centre report) and from the TCL Data Centre Price Tracker subscription service. The pricing shown in the report is in Euro - and has been converted from GBPs at the rate of 0.83 Euro to 1 GBP. All pricing is shown exclusive of VAT and taxes.  

All UK Data Centre raised floor space in this report is converted into square metres from square feet at the following rate:

10 square feet = 0.929 square metres

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

The basis of the report is a unique model of the UK Data Centre market developed by TCL - which includes the key metrics of power, capacity and pricing by facility and by Data Centre provider. The information for the model is obtained from each provider and is then integrated into the TCL database 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 Data Centre segments identified in this report 

The TCL Data Centre database can be segmented by location and the 3 main types of Data Centre provider segment used in this report. The segment types used are in this report to distinguish between facilities are whether the Data Centre is Carrier Based, Carrier Neutral or a Premium Data Centre provider are shown below - 

 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.    
The pricing information in the report is obtained in confidence from the Data Centre companies themselves and is used to derive an average market price for rack space or per square metre overall and for the Carrier Based, Carrier Neutral and Premium Data Centre sectors. 

Below TCL provides a breakdown of the numbers of UK Data Centre facility as a proportion by segment type (the segment types include Carrier Based, Carrier Neutral and Premium Data Centres) as of the end of 2014 in the pie chart below - 

Figure 6: A pie chart showing the breakdown of the numbers of UK Data Centre facility by segment type as of the end of 2014 (in per cent)
 
Source: TCL (Sample size - 151 UK Data Centre facilities) 

In the TCL survey there are around 94 UK Carrier Neutral Data Centre facilities & around 41 UK Carrier Based Data Centre facilities, and around 16 Premium Data Centres (which can cater for standard power per rack of up to 20 kW or above) - making 151 Data Centre facilities in all in the survey. 

The proportion of the UK Carrier Based, UK Carrier Neutral and UK Premium Data Centre segments by raised floor space are also shown in the pie chart below - 

Figure 7: A pie chart showing the breakdown by raised floor space of the 3 main UK Data Centre segment types as of the end of 2014 (in per cent) 
 
Source: TCL  (Sample size - 151 UK Data Centre facilities)
In terms of UK Data Centre raised floor space more than half of the total space in the TCL survey is for the UK Carrier Neutral Data Centre segment (54 per cent) and is forecast to have over 353,000 square metres of raised floor space as of the end of 2014.
 
The UK Carrier Based Data Centre segment (21 per cent) has relatively small amounts of raised floor space per Data Centre facility and is forecast to have over 134,000 square metres of raised floor space as of the end of 2014 - and is set to increase raised floor space only slowly. 

In most cases the Telecoms provider is renting Data Centre space from wholesale Data Centre providers in the Carrier Neural Data Centre segment.  

The UK Premium Data Centre segment is forecast by TCL to have over 25 per cent of UK Data Centre raised floor space with over 162,000 square metres of raised floor space as of the end of 2014 - with the proportion of Premium Data Centre space forecast to rise gradually over time.  

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 used in this report 

The Data Centre PUE ratio that is used in this 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 in the report is provided to TCL by the Data Centre itself - which has not been independently verified. 

The UK Data Centre pricing used in this report
The UK Data Centre pricing used has either been received directly from the Data Centre report - or from an end user - or from published sources. 
Where the pricing for individual Data Centres is mentioned in this report the pricing has already been published in the public domain. 
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. 
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. 
Pricing is based on standard retail rates. In some cases Data Centre providers do offer bundles of power with rack space as a standard offering.