12 Jan 2021
by Emma Fryer, techUK

Data Centre Services: Who does what?

Mapping UK Data Centre Offerings

This diagram identifies some of the operators active in the UK at present, and where they fit – very approximately- within the spectrum of data centre services.  This is only indicative: the intention is just to present the range of activity and demonstrate that data centres don’t all do the same thing.   Many of the operators shown below provide a range of services across multiple columns, but for simplicity we have limited them to one type of offering here: their position in the market is therefore under-represented.   Please ensure you read the accompanying notes.

 

What is this telling us about the UK market?

This mapping exercise, although not comprehensive, reveals some interesting market characteristics:

  1. Competition and choice: The most important thing this map tells us is that there are multiple providers in the UK for every type of data centre related service or combination of services.  From a customer perspective that is a good thing because it demonstrates that a competitive market exists with plenty of choice.  The structure of the UK market is such that the pricing power of individual providers is checked.  
  2. Dynamic change:   The UK data centre market is self-disruptive and constantly changing to meet new types of customer and new forms of demand.  We conducted a similar exercise several years ago and it is clear that the market is changing rapidly.  There is strong M&A activity – some operators have merged, others have been acquired.  This has not, however, consolidated the market into an oligarchy.   Although names once prominent in this landscape like Telecity have disappeared, at the same time new entrants like CloudHQ, CyrusOne and other smaller players have emerged on the scene, disrupting the type of services being offered e.g. build to suit for CSPs requiring scale operations, in a short timeframe.

The document can be downloaded here.

Authors

Emma Fryer, techUK