Customers unhappy with third-party data centre services: report

Fifty-four per cent of A/NZ respondents are looking for a new data centre provider

Some Australian and New Zealand end users of data centre services are looking to switch providers after experiencing scale, power and downtime issues, according to an IDC study.

The report, entitled Australia and New Zealand Third Party Datacentre Ecosystem, surveyed 420 end users and 73 suppliers in mid-2012. Fifty-seven per cent of end users are from Australia while the remaining 43 per cent are from New Zealand.

On the supply side, 60 per cent of the respondents are from Australia and 36 per cent are from New Zealand.

Speaking at an IDC briefing in Sydney, IDC A/NZ infrastructure research manager Doctor Glen Duncan told delegates that 15 per cent of end users are using co-location services while 18 per cent are using managed infrastructure in a third-party data centre.

“Of those using off premises computing, 54 per cent are either looking for a new data centre provider or are going to maintain their existing data centre,” he said. “This signals a reasonable amount of dissatisfaction with current data centre providers.

“When we asked people what problems they were experiencing with their third-party data centre, 25 per cent of end users indicated that the ability to scale out infrastructure was an issue. That’s a fundamental failing of the data centre market at the moment,” Duncan said.

In addition, 23 per cent said that they had experienced power issues while 19 per cent of respondents had been subjected to downtime.

Duncan said these were problems that data centre providers should be looking to resolve as quickly as possible to avoid customer churn.

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The survey also asked end users why they had moved into a third-party data centre. Twenty-four per cent indicated that they did not have the capital expenditure to build a new data centre or renovate an existing facility.

“Sixteen per cent moved because they indicated they were concerned about up time and redundancy,” he said. “Another 16 per cent indicated that they didn’t think they would have the power in their data centres to move forward.”

Less than 4 per cent of respondents said that data centre end of life issues led them to choose off premises computing.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia

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