Data Center Growth: With Demand On The Rise, Here Are Four Factors Contributing To The Industry's Growth

The data center sector is growing fast, and new technologies on the horizon will propel the industry even further. As companies' use of cloud-based tech and mixed reality grows, data centers will continue to see a boom in business.

The industry was up in North America the first half of 2016, increasing by 19% in Q1, then taking a 50% leap in Q2. Here a four takeaways on what's contributed to the industry's growth, aggregated from JLL's data center outlook report for this year.

Cloud Adoption

The use of this tech in the industry will double the size of data centers within the next five years, JLL reports. Experts say the centers will likely benefit from the additional infrastructure, connectivity and storage capacity cloud adoption requires.

Location Planning

Operators are putting more thought into locations, selecting buildings with shorter, more flexible lease structures. Users are growing more innovative in their efforts to find the perfect properties—even turning to predictive analytics to determine what they'll truly need, as not to overinvest. 

International Growth

Industry players are taking to international expansion to meet growing demand, and they're doing so with the support of data sovereignty laws—which require data be housed at centers within the same country the data is being supplied. The new laws bring two benefits—they allow users to profit from data, while at the same time bringing new investments to their economies.

Climate Change

The industry is working to improve its bottom line in three areas—people, planet and profit—and as the need to fight global climate change has grown, so has the need for more energy-efficient solutions that require the refrigerated cooling systems data centers provide. New tech and regulations also allow data centers to participate in sustainability programs.