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State of the Industry 2024 – What Lies Ahead for the Data Centre Sector?

By Blog, Downloads, Event, News, Press Release, Thought Leadership

As we reflect on Keysource’s State of the Industry Event 2024, the excitement and valuable discussions from the event continue to resonate within the data centre community. Now in its seventh year, this annual gathering has firmly established itself as a pivotal moment for data centre professionals, delivering crucial insights and expert analysis.

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Event Highlights

This year’s event delved into the rapidly evolving landscape of the data centre sector, highlighting how technology advancements are reshaping the industry. Attendees explored critical issues impacting the sector, including:

  • Sustainability Pressures: Strategies for integrating eco-friendly practices without compromising performance.
  • Skills Shortages: Innovative approaches to attract and retain talent in a competitive market.
  • Supply Chain Complexities: Navigating global supply challenges to ensure operational continuity.

The unveiling of our 2024 survey results provided a comprehensive overview of industry trends, reaffirming that balancing speed, substance, and sustainability remains a central theme for data centres moving forward.

Key Discussions

Participants had the opportunity to hear from industry leaders who shared their approaches to:

  • Adapting to New Regulations: Ensuring compliance while maintaining operational efficiency.
  • Managing Rising Costs: Implementing cost-effective solutions without sacrificing quality.
  • Integrating Sustainable Practices: Moving towards greener data centre operations to meet environmental goals.

Keysource's event had great discussions and clear insights that really helped us understand the challenges and opportunities coming up

State of the Industry 2024 Attendee

The State of the Industry event was a real eye-opener—great discussions with a clear look at the challenges we all face in our industry. Highly recommend it.

State of the Industry 2024 Attendee

Download The Full Report

Gain comprehensive insights from the State of the Industry 2024 Event by downloading our detailed report. Whether you’re addressing project delivery challenges, sustainability goals, or the ongoing skills shortage, our report offers invaluable perspectives from over 250 industry professionals.


At Keysource, we specialise in helping organisations to overcome the challenges of sustainable data centre design, building and management

Speak to our team today for tailored advice and guidance on creating and operating a data centre fit for the next generation of computing.

Contact us

State of the Industry 2023

By Blog, Downloads, Event, News, Press Release, Thought Leadership

Now in it’s sixth year, Keysource’s State of the Industry Report 2023, focuses on the data centre trilemma: balancing speed, substance and sustainability. It’s packed with insights from over 250 data centre professionals, and it’s essential information for anyone involved in our industry.

The report highlights the trilemma the industry is facing in dealing with the competing and compelling challenges of developing and delivering on sustainability targets; the pressure to speed up project delivery to remain competitive; and the continuing supply chain and skills issues. This is against a background of rising costs and new EU and imminent UK Regulation changes.

The pressure to speed up project delivery is perhaps the most concerning finding of the report with 75% of those surveyed identifying quality issues which could reasonably have been identified or better managed earlier as a result. Certainly, we are seeing some organisations prioritising speed above all else which is at best risky, especially considering our respondents’ strong concerns about getting the correct advice as the skills shortage continues to bite.

Jon HealyChief Operating Officer, Keysource

The report shows that the skills shortage continues with competing demand both ‘client side’ and within the supply chain for the same people. This is reflected by the fact that only a third of respondents are confident in the quality of the information that is being provided which negatively impacts the ability to make informed decisions. As a result, nearly half of respondents chose to sub-contract more projects or services than they had planned, as the industry turns even more to supply chain partners to keep to programme timescales. According to the majority of respondents this approach had a positive impact including better quality and quicker delivery, with the inevitable trade off of a higher cost.

There are some encouraging findings around sustainability with 69% of respondents having a seat at the table when discussing sustainability targets and over half having a separate ‘green budget’ that can be used for sustainable solutions and initiatives. However, this positive progress is at odds with the just 17% who consider sustainability to be a high priority and the fact that less than a third said they were making significant progress with their sustainability strategy – with over half still not having one at all! In addition, 64% of respondents haven’t evaluated the carbon impact of existing data centre services and solutions and 57% aren’t intending to evaluate future investments, meaning missed opportunities to make both carbon and financial savings.

The inrush of available capital that we have seen enter the data centre market is reflective of its promising returns and the comparative performance of other markets. This is coupled with a relatively low risk given its resilience through recent years, which is overall very positive for the short and medium term of the industry. This said, these conditions can quickly change given the influences this sector has from a range of areas such as technology, regulation, energy resources, corporate governance, and a lack of skilled people.

So, whilst this year’s state of the industry report shows that the data centre and related sectors continue to grow despite these challenges and the current global unrest, political scepticism, and economic uncertainty, it also flags that a number of common challenges still remain and these are forcing decision makers to operate differently. Our industry has a clear trilemma and the need to solve all three are equally important!

Jon HealyChief Operating Officer, Keysource


At Keysource, we specialise in helping organisations to overcome the challenges of sustainable data centre design, building and management

Speak to our team today for tailored advice and guidance on creating and operating a data centre fit for the next generation of computing.

Contact us

Can we keep up? Keysource launches State of the Industry Report 2021

By Blog, Downloads, News, Press Release, Thought LeadershipNo Comments

Keysource, the data centre and critical environment specialist, has announced the key findings of this year’s industry survey which is designed to give an insight into the decisions and considerations that UK IT directors and senior decision makers in the data centre industry are making, which in turn are influencing the market.

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