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Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com
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April 4, 2002 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Tier 1 Research (tier1research.com), a research and consulting firm focused on the Internet infrastructure software and services industry, announced the release of two new reports on Wednesday, a hosting services directory report, and a study of data center utilization levels.
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The 27-page data center supply and utilization report, entitled ?Infrastructure Bible v2.0C: Where Has All the Space Gone?? says Tier 1, is an in-depth look at supply and utilization of Internet data center (IDC) capacity in the global outsourcing marketplace. The report examines how much data center square footage truly exists across the worldwide marketplace and serves, says the company, as the first analysis ever published with the intent of deriving utilization rates by service provider and through geographic segments.
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The ?Infrastructure Bible? report?s two key findings, says Tier 1, are that the total gross square footage of data center space actually declined by 2 percent from year-end 2000 to year-end 2001, and was 25 percent below expected 2001 levels, and that the worldwide utilization of operational net square feet of data center space stands at 31 percent.
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“It is imperative that facilities-based hosting providers understand how they are executing relative to their peers and within their specific markets of operation to justify owning the capital intensive data center assets,” says Andrew Schroepfer, president and founder of Tier 1 Research. “We believe this is the first report that gives providers the intelligence necessary to understanding how well (or poorly) they are executing within many different contexts of other service providers or geographic market segments.”
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Key information from the ?Infrastructure Bible? includes reports that more than 800 IDCs, totaling over 40 million gross square feet of space, are operated by hosting firms worldwide, but less than half of that space is in operation; over 50% of the total operational space is within the United States; the top five owners of IDC space are Cable & Wireless (following the acquisition of Exodus), Level 3, WorldCom and Metromedia Fiber network; and the leaders for utilization rates are Rackspace, EMC, Consonus and Webvisions.
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Entitled ?Who, What, and How: A Directory of Service Offerings, Partners, and Supported Technologies,? the services directory report is the compilation of two surveys conducted by Tier 1 Research, of 40 colocation, managed hosting and application management service providers. According to Tier 1, the analysis will help service providers evaluate their own offerings and capabilities, enterprise IT decision makers evaluate their outsourcing provider options and technology vendors qualify service providers that should incorporate new solutions into their service offerings.
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In order to deal with the ongoing changes to this information, Tier 1 says it is introducing a searchable online interface incorporating this data later in the month. The online information will be available on a subscription basis.
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“For the past few years, the definition of the term ‘managed services’ has been abused by Web hosting providers of all kinds resulting in a marketplace of confused and frustrated IT decision makers,” says Schroepfer. “Tier 1 Research aims to eliminate the confusion in the marketplace by intelligently organizing the details of each provider’s service offerings in periodic reports and our online database tools.”
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The ?Who, What, and How? report, says Tier 1, includes vital information on how many firms offer various services and support various technology components. Part of the information included in the report is an analysis of the operating systems, Web servers, application servers and database servers supported; which providers provide services such as infrastructure audits and technology procurements and support wireless infrastructure; and which are most widely supported among independent software vendor applications for enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and business to business applications.
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Both reports are available from Tier 1 research. An executive summary of the ?Who, What, and How? can be purchased for $2,000. And the ?Infrastructure Bible,? part of a three-part series, can be purchased individually for $1,500, or as a set for $3,500.
