Data Centre growth in the Gulf States levels of as providers raise utilisation levels on existing Data Centre assets

DataCentrePricing.Com’s latest Middle East Data Centre 2017 to 2020 report finds that Data Centre Providers in the six Gulf States (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia & the UAE) are reducing investment in new Data Centres in favour of expanding their existing Data Centre facilities.

In the report DataCentrePricing.Com has identified 32 third party Data Centre Providers with 70 Data Centre facilities in the six Gulf States, with the majority of facilities located in Saudia Arabia and the UAE. The two countries of Saudi Arabia and the UAE account for almost two-thirds of Data Centre raised floor space and Data Centre Customer Power (DCCP) in the region.

Over the past year there has been selected expansion of existing Data Centre facilities with additional space and power – and also monitoring capabilities – in the region. Data Centre Providers including Batelco Data Centre (Bahrain), Ooredoo Data Centre (Qatar), Integrated Technology Co (ITC - Saudi Arabia) and Equinix (UAE).

But the Gulf States have also seen the expansion of the Global Cloud Service Providers - with IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud and Alibaba Cloud establishing cloud nodes in the region. AWS (Amazon Web Services) has opened sales offices in Dubai (UAE) and Manama (Bahrain). Local cloud providers are also offering cloud services, typically reselling Microsoft Cloud, Google Cloud and AWS Cloud services.

The Middle East region is seeing growth in other parts of the IT ecosystem, with Governments in Oman and Qatar investing in national Fibre Broadband projects with some also trialing cloud hosting as part of an eGovernment initiative for selected Government departments.

Although the fall in the global oil price has reduced the number of new-build Data Centre projects in the Middle East region, some Data Centre Providers believe that the squeeze on capital intensive Data Centre build-outs is assisting the growth in third party hosting services from both enterprises and Government departments for the first time – with hosted IT & cloud gaining acceptance.

" DataCentrePricing.Com finds that Rackspace and m2 space rentals remain high – with standard Rackspace ranging over USD 1,000 (without power)". The high cost of local in-country fibre services can be a significant barrier to providing connectivity between Data Centre facilities in the Gulf States – with monthly rentals being significantly higher than in Europe or Asia.

Overall the new DataCentrePricing.Com report finds that the Gulf State countries are undergoing a period of transition, as capital spending is reduced more efficiency is being sought from existing IT assets, and is spurring the use of cloud services as well as third party Data Centre facilities.

Notes to editors
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About the DataCentrePricing.Com Middle East Data Centre 2017 to 2020 report – The DataCentrePricing.Com Middle East Data Centre 2017 to 2020 report has been extensively updated since the 2016 edition. It includes average pricing (rack space and m2 space), key Data Centre profiles, the Data Centre ecosystem, DCCP power, Data Centre raised floor space and forecasts for each of the six Gulf States. The report costs GBP £1,595 for a single user licence and consists of 80 pages with 38 charts and tables. The report is to be updated on an annual basis.

About DataCentrePricing.Com is the Data Centre research arm of Telecoms Pricing, a London-based specialist international research consultancy providing Tariff Tracker services for fixed line broadband, mobile broadband & smartphone and other services. DataCentrePricing.Com publishes research on Data Centre markets across Europe, Africa and the Middle East and also provides Trend Tracker services for the UK & European Data Centre markets.

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