Datacenter operators are confident demand for their services will continue to increase, but worry about the high cost of energy, their ability to source UPS hardware and cooling units, and crucially, being able to hire staff with requisite skills in a competitive market.by consulting outfit BCS, the datacenter industry is preparing for a boom over the coming year.
The growth in volumes of data and infrastructure to manage it have outpaced the availability of trained professionals, while a lack of specialized training programs means there may be a gap in the multidisciplinary skills required for datacenter operations. Who's needed most? Design and build staffers – so that's your quantity surveyors, site managers, and site engineers – without whom new DC construction cannot move forward. Over 80 percent said they were worried about a shortage of skilled build contractors. Then, on the ops side, some 76 percent were worried, with a whopping 68 percent of respondents directly experiencing shortages among operations and network engineers and technicians over the past year.
The report goes on to note there is"substantial evidence" that power consumption in bit barns will increase, at least in the near future, with 81 percent of respondents saying they expect higher consumption over the next three years.