Market Trends of Data Center Rack Industry
BFSI Sector Expected to Hold a Significant Share
- Cloud and data centers have become the backbone of the BFSI sector, especially during the digitization movement. The increasing competition and the demand for online services in the banking and financial sectors drive the market for data centers and, by extension, data center racks.
- Data centers have become very crucial for financial services. The racks used in the banking sector require additional protection against theft, damage, and other risks. Racks enable the banking service providers to have a platform that hosts the systems and protects them from unforeseen physical risks. These racks are modular, owing to which the banking service providers can upgrade when required.
- The rack providers are developing particular products for this segment to cater to the increasing demand from this sector. The most recent was by NetRack, which launched iRack/iRack Block to cater to the banking and insurance sectors.
- The strong presence of BFSI in developed regions, like North America and Europe led to increased penetration of digital services. This is primarily owing to the higher degree of awareness related to digitization in these regions. Along with this, Asia-Pacific is also growing substantially due to a huge consumer base for these services. Countries like China and India are witnessing a strong shift toward cloud services in the banking sector.
- The growing scope of online payment further increases the need for data centers in the BFSI sector. Banks and financial institutions securely store customer information in both on-premise and cloud data centers, as well as on the trading floors and in branch operations.
- Due to the global coronavirus disruption, the adoption of digital banking solutions is expected to adopt further technologies like containerization, cloud computing, microservices, APIs, and blockchain. Hence, the financial and banking industry is expected to provide several growth opportunities for data centers.
North America to Hold Maximum Market Share
- The rapid growth of mobile broadband with an increase in big data analytics coupled with cloud computing are some of the factors driving the demand for new data center infrastructures in the North American region. The region also comprises a considerable amount of data centers. Multiple enterprises are switching from hardware to software-based services, and they are anticipated to be an addressable market for data center installations. Moreover, according to the cloud scene, there are more than 2500 data centers in the United States and more than 250 data centers in Canada.
- The United States has the highest number of data centers globally, and it is witnessing robust growth in terms of the volume of big data and traffic due to the increase in the number of hyperscale data centers. According to Cisco, the volume of big data in data center storage globally is expected to reach 403 exabytes by the end of 2021, of which a huge share would likely be attributed to the United States.
- Moreover, the region has a strong foothold of data center racks providers, driving the region's market. Some of them include Kendall Howard LLC, Belkin International Inc., Martin International, HPE, Dell EMC, Black Box Corporation, and Chatsworth Products.
- The leading vendors offer an integrated power, cooling, and IT infrastructure to attract a higher number of consumers and gain a larger market share. The region is likely to witness higher investment in mega facilities projects, contributed heavily by colocation, internet, and cloud service providers, thereby boosting the demand for racks and rack options.
- Moreover, the US government commenced the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) to deliver better services to the public while increasing the taxpayers' return on investment by consolidating many data centers in the country. The consolidation process includes the process of building hyper-scale data centers and shut-off the underperforming ones. To date, the government has closed over 3,215 sq ft of campus in Northern Virginia.