industry news
RECORD DATA CENTRE COLOCATION ACTIVITY RECORDED ACROSS EUROPEAN MARKETS
There was a record 155MW of take-up across the four major European data centre markets of Frankfurt , London , Amsterdam and Paris during 2016 according to global real estate advisor CBRE .
Amsterdam ( 54WM ) became the first market in history to see more than 50MW of take-up in a single year , whilst London ( 49MW ) and Frankfurt ( 34MW ) recorded more take-up than any individual market had done in any year before 2016 ; the previous high was London with 29MW in 2010 .
The Paris market saw 17.6MW of take-up in the year , which is over seven times that of a particularly poor performance in 2015 ( 2.5MW ). This was , in percentage terms , the largest increase from any market on the previous year .
Andrew Jay , executive director , data centre solutions , at CBRE commented , ‘ The record level of take-up in 2016 was totally unprecedented . Q4 alone saw almost as much activity as any other full year . Over the course of 2016 all four markets saw more take-up than they each did in the previous two years combined . The numbers are quite astounding .
‘ Cloud continues to dominate the landscape , with 70 per cent of deals coming from this sector . These hyperscale cloud deals that once would have been unusual became the norm . We predict that cloud take-up will continue to increase in size as more hyperscale providers turn to large scale , build-to-suit facilities as an effective speed to-market option .’
Cloud Industry Forum launches vendor independent Professional Member certification scheme to help plug digital skills gap
Acknowledging research reports about the lack of skills in the cloud computing market , the Cloud Industry Forum ( CIF ) has launched its Professional Member certification scheme based on its independent eLearning programme for IT professionals .
The new certification scheme is open to all CIF Professional Members who participate in the eLearning programme and by taking online exams , achieving a score of 80 per cent or more for each module taken .
Alex Hilton , CEO of CIF , stated , ‘ Cloud services are now mainstream technology and most organisations are looking to leverage cloud platforms and services at a strategic level . Our research indicates that the risk and complexity associated with cloud migration means that the demand for professionals with a deep understanding is at an all-time high . As a result , we wanted to offer our professional members the opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market with a recognised qualification and professional certification .’
The online course material , developed with the help of leading CIOs and industry experts , covers a range of subjects based on 12 unique modules , all of which aid and educate individuals on cloud realities and help identify how to de-risk and accelerate the cloud adoption journey . Certified professionals can therefore demonstrate that they have learned and understand these principals and can positively support or shape cloud based projects .
For further information visit : www . cloudindustryforum . org / promember
HYBRID IT IS BECOMING A STANDARD ENTERPRISE MODEL BUT MANAGEMENT AND DATA MIGRATION ARE KEY TO SUCCESS
Dimension Data has published a new report that explores the current state of hybrid IT deployments , as well as the key requirements and business drivers that determine workload placement decisions .
The research of 1,500 IT decision makers from multiple vertical industries across the US , Europe , Asia-Pacific and South Africa , reveals that hybrid IT is becoming a standard enterprise model , but there ’ s no single playbook to get there . Looking at the top motivators to move to hybrid IT by country , Hong Kong , UK and US companies highlighted end user demand most often , while respondents in France , Singapore and South Africa most often noted cost . Malaysian firms listed hiring challenges , and German firms mentioned limited data centre capacity as the most common motivating factors .
The Success Factors for Managing Hybrid IT points to the fact that management of the hybrid IT environment ( 41 per cent of respondents ) is one of the top three challenges in deployment .
Dimension Data Group CEO Jason Goodall said , ‘ With data and processes shifting across multiple cloud and non-cloud environments , a new approach to management is called for . IT managers are under tremendous pressure to seek new ways to manage and secure multiple IT environments in an effective manner . Automation is important because it helps reduce the operating costs , as well as the pain caused by the growing complexity of business processes and management tasks . It is simply no longer appropriate or cost effective for these tasks to be done manually .’
March 2017 | 11