Definitions

Question 1

Absorption Rate

Answer 1

Either the ratio of the average take-up to the total supply pipeline, or the ratio of the average take-up to the vacant supply. A metric used by investors to understand whether a market is over or under-supplied.

Question 2

Aggregate Supply

Answer 2

The sum total of all live IT power.

Question 3

Aggregate Take-up

Answer 3

The sum total of all data centre take-up excluding churn.

Question 4

Carrier Hotel

Answer 4

A highly connected data centre, with an especially large number of telecommunications and network peering points. Sometimes referred to as network hubs, most IXPs start out from a carrier hotel due to the presence of so many peering points

Question 5

Churn

Answer 5

IT power within a colocation facility which has been vacated in a given quarter, whether through the end of a contract or insolvency.

Question 6

Colocation

Answer 6

The data centre industry’s term for renting space and IT power within from a dedicated third party provider of data centre space. The opposite of enterprise supply.

Question 7

Data Halls

Answer 7

The areas within a data centre that are devoted to computer servers. These areas will typically have strict access control, carefully managed temperature and humidity and cleanliness requirements. Data halls are also referrred to variously as Grey Space, White Space, Raised Floor Area, Net Technical Area and Server Rooms.

Question 8

Defined Markets

Answer 8

Also sometimes referred to as Individual Markets, are those which the DC Byte team has created based on our view of where that market lies. For example, the London market includes not just the metropolitan area, but in fact extends all the way down the M4 motorway corridor to South Wales. Defined Markets are somewhat arbitrary and therefore if you feel that the borders should be shaped differently you can use the Create Custom Market tool to draw the borders yourself.

Question 9

Development Pipeline

Answer 9

The Aggregate Supply for a market as broken down into Live, Under Construction and Phased Capacity, and of these, that which is Available or Sold.

Question 10

Emerging Markets

Answer 10

Those markets, normally below 50MW, which are showing early signs of rapid growth.

Question 11

Enterprise (operator type)

Answer 11

Enterprise operators are data centre operators who build and run their facilities for their own use. Examples may include banks, telecoms companies or, more recently, hyperscale companies such as the US or Chinese tech giants.

Question 12

Enterprise (take-up type)

Answer 12

Enterprise take-up refers to colocation take-up by large organisations which typically are from traditional industries such as finance or other institutional occupiers.

Question 13

FLADs

Answer 13

The four current largest data centre markets in Europe: Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Dublin. Together these markets account for around half of the live IT power in EMEA. The successor to the FLAPs.

Question 14

FLAPDs

Answer 14

The five largest data centre markets in Europe. Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. FLAPDs was a term coined to recognise the growing significance of Dublin as a data centre market, while the FLAPs were traditionally seen as the core markets. This has since been superseded by the FLADs.

Question 15

FLAPs

Answer 15

The traditional core European markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris. Now superseded by the FLADs.

Question 16

Gigawatt Markets

Answer 16

The largest data centre markets in the world - those which have a total Development Pipeline in excess of 1,000MW.

Question 17

Growth Markets

Answer 17

Those markets of size, typically at least 50MW of live capacity, which are seeing the highest level of active growth as a percentage of overall capacity.

Question 18

Internet Exchange Point (IXP)

Answer 18

IXPs are private networks that may be not-for-profit or for-profit. Their purpose is to act as a single jumping on point from which users are able to access a large number of other networks. Most IXPs grew out of Carrier Hotels, which are the natural meeting point for many individual telecoms networks where they are able to interface with one another.

Question 19

IT Power

Answer 19

The net power capacity that can be provided to computer servers within a data hall. It represents not just the limit of the power coming through the power socket to the servers, but also the supporting mechanical and electrical equipent supporting those servers. For example there may be enough power to add more servers than the stated IT Power capacity within a data hall, but those servers would overheat because the air conditioning equipment is not sufficient to cool above the specified IT Power.

Question 20

Kilowatts (kW)

Answer 20

Normally used in the context of power pricing, for example $100 per kW per month. It can also be used when describing power density, such as 1.5kW per sqm (or 1,500W per sqm)

Question 21

Lead Markets

Answer 21

Also known as the Tier 1 Markets, these are the top locations by amount of live MW in a region.

Question 22

Market Composition

Answer 22

The breakdown of the data centre market by the type of occupier. Understanding market composition is helpful as, in many cases, it demonstrates the evolution of a market over time.

Question 23

Market Share

Answer 23

We define Market Share on our platform as the total amount of live IT power developed by a particular operator across a given market relative to the total amount of live power within that market.

Question 24

Meet-Me-Room (MMR)

Answer 24

A room or set of rooms within a data centre reserved for telecoms and network providers. Servers within a data hall can be connected via a copper or fibre cable into the MMR into the servers of their chosen network provider.

Question 25

Megavolt Amperes (MVA)

Answer 25

At DC Byte we use MVA to differentiate between incoming utility power and server IT power. Many parties will frequently use MVA and MW interchangeably and even more will confuse IT power with utility power. The key to note is that Utility power will always be higher than IT power.

Question 26

Megawatts (MW)

Answer 26

Typically we use MW to define IT power capacity; as opposed to MVA which is used to indicate power coming in from an external utility feed.

Question 27

Peering Point

Answer 27

The location at which two networks meet.

Question 28

Phased Capacity

Answer 28

Phased capacity is the estimated IT power that we believe will be added to a market’s overall supply. In our view, phased supply is only given to data centre developments that are in the control of the end user or operator. It does not include speculative schemes that are likely to be sold onto a third party. Phased Capacity could take the form of a data centre scheme which has yet to start construction, or it may refer to shell space in an existing data centre. The difference being that shell space can fitted out normally in a matter of 3-6 months, while a data centre scheme that has yet to start construction might take 1-2 years. Also can be referred to as Planned Capacity.

Question 29

Point of Presence (POP)

Answer 29

This is where a network or service has a physical joining on location within a data centre. In physical terms this will be a server switch within a facility’s Meet-Me-Room from which other occupiers are able to directly connect a cable from their own servers into the POP.

Question 30

Power Density

Answer 30

The IT power per square metre within a data hall. Over time IT power has steadily increased, with 1,000W per sqm being normal in 2000 and 2,000W per sqm or more being seen in today’s data centres. In certain cases, such as high powered computing or specialist applications, densities can be substantially higher.

Question 31

Power Usage Efficiency (PUE)

Answer 31

PUE is a broad measure of the efficiency of a data centre. It represents the ratio between the amount of electricity used within the data centre to the ratio used by the servers. A PUE of 1.0 is where 100% of the energy used in the facility goes on computing; a PUE of 1.5 is where for every 100W of power used in the servers, a further 50W of power is used for air conditioning, lighting, security systems etc. PUE can be used for Design PUE, which is the hypothetical maximum efficiency of a data centre, and Operational PUE, which is the actual efficiency figure.

Question 32

Public Cloud

Answer 32

Refers to a service whereby a provider builds out full IT infrastructure and then rents ‘virtual’ servers to third party customers. The main advantage of public cloud is price and flexibility in that it allows users to rapidly scale their IT infrastructure without having to first secure data centre space, whether through self-build or colocation, and thereby significantly reducing the speed to deploy, whilst also allowing their customers to scale down their operations with equal ease. The chief disadvantages of public cloud are price - it is significantly more expensive for large deployments - and interoperability, since it is not simple to migrate from one public cloud provider to another.

Question 33

Retail Colocation

Answer 33

Retail colocation offers third party data centre space to smaller customer deployments, typically under 500kW. Retail colocation facilties can have hundreds of customers and dozens of network connections. Retail operators provide additional services such as Smart Hands or Cross Connects which carry one-off and ongoing charges.

Question 34

Square Metres (sqm)

Answer 34

Also represented as ‘sq m’ or ‘m2’

Question 35

Supply

Answer 35

The amount of IT power within a given market. Supply may be Live, Under Construction or Phased; and it may be Sold or Available.

Question 36

Supply Pipeline

Answer 36

The combined total of IT power at all stages of development.

Question 37

Take-up

Answer 37

DC Byte defines take-up in two ways: for Enterprise data centres, take-up represents where IT power is either Live or Under Construction, since at that point they are committed to the cost of the scheme. For colocation, take-up may occur for both Live or Under Construction IT power. Take-up is recorded in the quarter in which we believe the deal to have been agreed and not when IT power goes live. For example if a data centre customer agrees a 10MW deal in Q1 2021, but the space will not be delivered until Q4 2021, we class the take-up to be in Q1 2021.

Question 38

Tier 1 Markets

Answer 38

The data centre markets which together make up the majority of data centre activity in a region.

Question 39

Tier 2 Markets

Answer 39

Any markets of significant size which are not included in the Tier 1 markets within a region.

Question 40

Vacancy Rate

Answer 40

Applies only to Colocation data centres for IT power which is live but not sold or leased. Space that has not been pre-sold that is under construction will not form part of the Vacancy Rate, nor will future phased power. In many cases this is not a useful metric for understanding the level of over or under-supply within a market since data centre operators will develop space in a modular fashion and not commit to developing a scheme in its entirety in a single phase.

Question 41

Vacant Supply

Answer 41

Unsold Live IT power.

Question 42

Watts (W)

Answer 42

The most common use for watts in data centre analysis is for the density of power within data halls (e.g. 1,500W per sqm). See also kW (1,000 W) and MW (1,000 kW).

Question 43

Wholesale Colocation

Answer 43

Data centres developed at scale for large customer deployments. Rents tend to be lower and the size of individual deals commensurately larger, perhaps 1MW or higher per deal as a typical size.