Demand for co-location services is rising, with enterprises preparing to pay more to outsource their IT, 451 Research reveals.

The amount of datacentre space occupied by co-location providers is up by 11% on 2014, and is forecast to maintain that level of growth through to 2018 as enterprises look to outsource more of their IT.

According to 451 Research’s latest datacentre market report, which is based on the responses of more than 1,000 users across the world, the most popular co-location providers are Equinix, AT&T and Sungard, with their services used by more than 10% of respondents.

This is a relatively high percentage given the fragmented nature of the datacentre market, said 451, as its research shows there are more than 1,000 co-location providers being actively used across the globe.

Nearly half (42%) of organisations also said they expect to spend on average 15% more on co-location in 2016 compared with 2015, with 14% preparing to jump ship to a new provider or enlist an additional one for capacity planning purposes.

In terms of the quality of service they provide, Equinix has the edge, based on the results of 451 Research’s supplier evaluations, with users praising the firm for its uptime record, its approach to physical security and its compliance record.

Dan Harrington, research director at 451, said Equinix’s facilities tick all the boxes for users from a connectivity, security and reliability point of view.

“Providers that were ranked lower received poor marks due to aging facilities and poor value for money,”

he said.

“Co-location providers will need to keep their eye on the ball when it comes to modernising their facilities and delivering core competencies to remain competitive,”

he added.

Datacentre investment priorities

The research also shone a light on the datacentre investment habits of enterprise IT users, which revealed more facilities are being closed down than opened.

This is a trend the analyst house has attributed to the push by many enterprises to consolidate and upgrade their existing facilities so the ones they have perform better and have the capacity to cope with the demands put on them.

As a result, 24% of enterprises said they expect to increase the amount spent on their facilities over the next three months so they can kit them out with new, more efficient datacentre technologies.

In terms of whose technology they are using for this task, 451’s findings pegged Schneider Electric and Emerson as the leaders in the datacentre power and cooling technology stakes, with 64% and 33% of respondents using their hardware, respectively.

However, said Harrington, despite Schneider’s tech being more widely used now, Emerson is well-positioned to eat into its rival’s share of the power and cooling market.

“Emerson is seen as providing market competitive products and high promise, but needing to work on fulfilment attributes,”

he said.

“Emerson Liebert has a strong brand presence among enterprise IT buyers as a cooling supplier and are viewed as having highly reliable and efficient computer room air conditioning (Crac) and computer room air handling (Crah) equipment, especially among large organisations.

Our respondents put them far ahead of competitors in terms of both market offerings and their ability to follow through on expectations,”

he added.