All things data about data centres

At the end of 2021, there were 11.28 BILLION Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices worldwide and it is forecast that by 2030 there will be 29.42 BILLION¹. Regardless of what the IoT device purpose is, or where it’s located, the collected information needs to be sent over the network to data centres.

Here are 10 of the largest data centres in the world in 2023².

Data Center	Area (square ft.)	Area (square ft.)
China Telecom Data Center	10 million	China
China Mobile	7.2 million	China
The Citadel Campus	7.2 million	United States
Microsoft Data Center	7 million	United States
DuPont Fabros Technology	3.3 million	United States
CWL1 Data Centre	1.45 million	United Kingdom
Apple’s Mesa Data Center	1.3 million	United States
CoreSite Reston VA3	1.3 million	United States
Lakeside Technology Center	1.1 million	United States
Utah Data Center	1 million	United States

The CWL1 Data Centre on this list is located near Cardiff and is the largest data centre in Europe. Although the UK only has one data centre in the top 10 by size, it’s ranked 3^rd in the world by number. 

The US leads with 2,701 data centres, followed by Germany in 2^nd place with 487, the UK follows at 456, with China and Canada taking 4^th and 5^th place respectively with 453 and 328) data centres⁴.

It’s not surprising that the UK is an attractive location for data centres, being strategically placed between Europe and the America’s, with strong connectivity and a favourable business environment. London continues to be the largest and most mature data centre market, and apparently has the largest concentration of data centres in any given city across the world. Other regions such as Manchester, Birmingham and Scotland are seeing increased investment. 

But the rapid demand for, and growth of, data centres is causing a myriad of challenges.  One is the need to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology and customer demands. As new technologies and applications emerge, data storage solutions must adapt quickly and efficiently or risk creating inefficiencies.  The greater the density (the power within a cabinet), the more compute resources available and the faster the applications can run.

Others include a squeeze on floorspace in existing facilities to enable expansion to meet demand and the ever increasing environmental, social and governance targets where thermal management and energy use high on the agenda.  The humble data rack and data cabinet are critical data centre assets that can help or hinder data storage and density, thermal management and energy efficiency.

Here at Rainford Solutions we have been designing and manufacturing data centre racks and cabinets, hot and cold aisle containment, modular caging and partitioning systems and many more data centre solutions for over a decade.  We continually innovate to meet the ever-changing infrastructure challenges of today’s highly advanced technological centres.

We work with critical infrastructure operators, systems integrators and global operators to develop custom-made enclosures as well as standardised solutions for micro-data centres to hyperscalers, new or existing facilities.

Get in touch to see how we can solve your data centre infrastructure challenges.

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