Network Communications News (NCN) April 2016 | Page 8

I NDUST RY NEW S
Survey highlights
lack of understanding
of new networking
controls
Software defined network (SDN) is being labelled as the future
of networking for its ability to deliver greater efficiency and
automation. However, research from Exponential-e has revealed
that 86 per cent of businesses do not understand SDN and 95 per
cent do not know what benefits it could bring to their enterprise.
‘In an innovate or fail society, an agile and responsive network
is central to driving competitive advantage,’ explained Chris
Christou, director of engineering at Exponential-e. ‘Providing a
business with the ability to manage and control their network
themselves enables them to support their business internally in
their drive for increased revenues.’
SDN effectively allows organisations to reconfigure network
services on-demand. Enterprises are no longer subject to change
controls, service tickets or related support and management fees.
Instead they can adapt the services that network providers deliver,
through a simple self-service interface.
In total, nearly a third (32 per cent) of respondents are
battling escalating software and hardware costs, 21 per cent
admitted that there is a lack of internal control over the
network and 17 per cent said that infrastructure was unable to
cope with growth.

London reclaims top spot
for best performing European
data centre market
London saw the most demand for colocation data centre space across Europe in 2015,
displacing Amsterdam from the top spot, according to the latest data from global real
estate advisor CBRE.
In 2015 London outperformed its European counterparts with 26MW of
customer IT power sold during the year. Its Q4 total of 10MW marked the
highest quarterly take-up in any European market for two years. Underpinning this
trend is ongoing momentum from IT infrastructure firms as they continue to host
directly from London, having served the market from Dublin. These companies are
responsible for the vast majority of transactions as they continue to dominate the
European landscape.
Furthermore, ongoing prospects for London remain strong. Large numbers of
enterprise firms can now access cloud services as IT Infrastructure companies have
started to provide on-off ramps across data centres in London.
The major markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris (FLAP cities) enjoyed
an overall healthy year with 62MW of take-up during 2015.
Andrew Jay, EMEA head of data centre solutions at CBRE, explained, ‘We can’t
get away from the impact that the IT infrastructure firms are having on the European
landscape. In simple terms, any market they turn their focus to enjoys success. Today,
most substantial new requirements are led by IT infrastructure firms coming out of
the US West Coast. In essence, these companies, which are few in number, are single
handedly shaping the European markets.’

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