The market for data center IT infrastructure globally, including servers, storage, networking, security and virtualization, will reach $128 billion this year, up 6% from $120 billion last year, according to a new research report.
The report from research firm Canalys also said data center transformation is one of the three key trends driving IT growth in 2012, he others being consumerization of IT and enterprise mobility.
Canalys also said its latest forecasts reveal that the market for data center IT infrastructure globally, including servers, storage, networking, security and virtualization, will reach $128 billion this year, up 6% from $120 billion last year. Total investment will grow 5% on average per annum to reach $152 billion in 2016.
Large data centers will lead this expansion, posting an average annual increase of 8% over the same period. Much of this infrastructure will be used to form the backbone of cloud services for both consumer and commercial customers.
“On the consumer side, everything from social networking platforms to online banking services will require resilient infrastructure on which to run,” said Alex Smith, senior analyst at Canalys. “This is particularly evident in the Asia Pacific region, where businesses in China and India are investing heavily in infrastructure to provide online services to their customers. The size of the populations in these markets presents a huge potential demand for data center infrastructure.”