What the Value Chain Really Think About Hyperscale Data Centers

Author: Frank Nash Schneider Electric Blog

At this year’s 7×24 Xchange conference, hyperscale is sure to be big topic. We’ve all heard the numbers, like this one: the market is expected to rise from $ 20 billion in 2018 to $ 65+ billion by 2025. The ensuing scale and complexity of these data centers has disrupted the ecosystem of people involved in building and designing them. Schneider Electric wanted to know what the value chain thinks about how their roles are changing in the data center market.

To get a better understanding of the mindset, we surveyed North American hyperscale and colocation data center decision makers spanning consulting engineering, construction management, distributor/integrator and electrical contractor roles. The world is changing for all of them, but each has different concerns and prospects.

Download report:
The Impact of Hyperscale Data Centers

Value Chain’s Thoughts on the Hyperscale Data Center Market

Here are some of the prominent insights we gleaned from this report:

• Consulting engineer respondents have the most experience in hyperscale projects. Their responsibility to design for maximum electrical efficiency and reliability give them unique insight into the evolving market — and put them under the most pressure to complete work in a tight deadline; their number one pain point, according to the survey.
• The amount of time electrical contractors will spend on hyperscale projects is expected to increase for mostly all members of the value chain. They too are worried about timelines, but 70% are also looking forward to the opportunity to gain new skills and expertise.
• The mantra for most construction managers when working in hyperscale projects is “good help is hard to find.” The majority of these respondents feel the pain of the growing labor shortage more than any other in the trades. At the same time, they’re ready for the chance to innovate, claimed the majority (59%).
• Distributors/integrators are dealing with unprecedented complexity involved with the exponential amount of systems involved in hyperscale projects. Concurrently, 57% cite scale of deployment as their biggest area of opportunity.

Learn More About the Impact of Hyperscalers on the Data Center Market

These points are just a snapshot of the data and analysis found in our full report —The Impact of Hyperscale Data Centers: How the wave is changing the value chain — where we explore new way of working through the value chain and how to be the dependable partner in the hyperscale data center era. The report also offers potential solutions to overcome the challenges and realize the full potential of this boom. Check out our interactive web page that highlights the survey findings by each member of the value chain!