Driven by digital disruption, service innovation goes into overdrive as global and local players compete for a share in Australia’s fast growing data centre market.

As Australia’s appetite for everything digital grows, the role of the data centre undergoes transformation from a passive hub to an enabler of innovation

Key takeaways

Australia’s data centre market is set for explosive growth. Digital disruption, privacy laws, competition and increased cloud computing are creating a perfect storm for data centre growth; expected to grow from an AUD $2.6bn market today to AUD $4.4bn in five years.

Not all data centres are the same. Australian organisations reap the benefit of choice with a host of value adds from data, power and security. The growth in cloud computing will see more businesses reduce their in-house IT footprint and cloud computing standards will give way to Computing-as-a-Service (CaaS).

Data centres are becoming digital real estate. The demand for local data centres is driving operators to acquire more property to build additional sites in major cities. Data centre floor space is expected to grow from almost 400,000 sqm today to over 700,000 sqm in five years, creating growth opportunities in adjacent industries.

Sustainability challenges will put data centre operators under increasing pressure. Cooling alone accounts for 40% of energy demand for data centres. Sustainability measures such as emissions trading are likely to have a significant impact on data centres and increase demand for green technologies that lowers energy consumption and improves power usage efficiency in data centres.