Long-established as Europe’s largest Data Centre market in Europe, the London and Inner M25 cluster region is set to be overtaken by Frankfurt as the largest Data Centre cluster on the continent, according to new research published by DataCentrePricing.Com.

 

The latest edition of the firm’s bi-annual Euro Data Centre Trends subscription service forecasts that third party Data Centre raised floor space in both the London & Inner M25 and the Frankfurt clusters stands at 264,000m2 of potential space available in each city.

 

However, the Frankfurt Data Centre cluster is set to experience significant extra growth over the next 12-month period – with some 11 Data Centre expansions announced by providers in the Frankfurt area, including Colt Telecom, Digital Realty, Equinix, Interxion and Maincube. As such, the Frankfurt cluster will soon overtake the UK’s largest Data Centre cluster to become the largest single city Data Centre cluster in Europe. 

 

In total, Frankfurt area third party Data Centre space is forecast to grow by over 34,0000m2 of raised floor space – or approximately 60MW of DCCP (Data Centre Customer Power) – during 2018. Frankfurt is expected to overtake London to become Europe’s largest cluster by the beginning of 2019.

 

By contrast, the London and Inner M25 area cluster is forecast to add only an additional 10,300m2 of Data Centre raised floor space – or approximately 20MW of DCCP in total – over the same period, with just two notable London Data Centre expansions due to take place in 2018 (VIRTUS London-5 at Stockley Park and Interxion London-3 at Brick Lane). 

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Reasons for Frankfurt’s swift growth

 

Frankfurt is seeing new third party Data Centre growth now for numerous key reasons, suggest analysts at DataCentrePricing.Com. One is the availability of new space for expansion around the Frankfurt area – with new land for Data Centre development being acquired by Colt Telecom, Digital Realty and Interxion, and with planning consent readily available for new Data Centre development.

 

Another reason is the attractiveness of Frankfurt as an international connectivity hub – the German Internet Exchange (DE-CIX) was reporting daily IP traffic of over 5.9TB as of September 2017, with the Frankfurt area also becoming a hub for connectivity in Germany and to other countries in the CEE region.

 

The ease of adding incremental space to existing Data Centre facilities is another key factor to the swift growth of the Frankfurt cluster. New Data Centre space is to be added by Equinix (at its FR2, FR5 and FR6 facilities), for example, and by Interxion (at its FRA-11, FRA-12 and FRA-13 facilities) in the Frankfurt area.

 

By contrast, the London and Inner M25 region cluster is seeing a relative shortage of new land for Data Centre development when compared with Frankfurt.

 

In the UK, Data Centre development is increasingly taking place outside of the London and Inner M25 area, with Slough now becoming the largest Data Centre cluster outside of London. Developments made in that city include those by major players like Cyxtera, Equinix, NTT Com, VIRTUS and Zenium, with over 100,000m2 of Data Centre raised floor space available in the Slough area.