Data Center Market Seeing Major Changes

The data center industry has shifted dramatically in just the past seven years, we learned Wednesday at Bisnow's Dallas Data Center Extravaganza at the Dallas Infomart. QTS Realty Trust director of enterprise sales for the Central US Stephen Johnston (right, with colleagues Rikki Wells and Susan Dobbs) says before that, banks wouldn’t consider co-location, opting to build their own data centers. Now, they’ve shifted to wholesale or colo providers, he says. Stephen says the acquisition of Carpathia expands QTS’ managed services from 8% to 27%.

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank executive managing director Bryan Loewen (left, with Patronus Data Centers’ Ryan Sullivan) says one macro trend he’s seeing from consumers is the desire for a mix of all solutions; they’re looking for service and not just four walls. He also says the Dallas data center market has remained healthy with sustainable rents despite the growing competition of new data centers coming on line. We also learned that Bryan is a diehard St Louis Cardinals fan. How could you not be with a record like 60-34?

Event panel: Stream Data Centers managing director Anthony Bolner, Digital Realty Trust VP Bryan Marsh, Bryan Loewen, Stephen and Infomart Data Centers president John Sheputis. Bryan Marsh tells us Digital Realty only has 1 MW available in Dallas and has a 3 MW project (all pre-leased) under construction to meet the strong local demand. For Digital Realty, Dallas ranks among their top three markets (others are Northern Virginia and Chicago). Just last week, Digital Realty acquired Telx. (The deal is valued at $1.886B, according to Forbes.com.) Bryan says about 50% of Telx’s revenues come from co-location and the rest come from interconnections; Telx's sales force, software and management will add to Digital Realty’s business, he says.