Data Centres The role of industry data in facilitating EU policy dialogue November 2016 Why do we need better industry data? To date, we have avoided taking a bullish industry stance to promote the sector at EU level. The conversation would go something like this: “We are a really important sector and we contribute to the economy and we underpin the digital agenda; why can’t you Brussels wonks be nicer to us?” and the response would be. “OK, so how big is your industry? How many people do you employ? How many sites do you have? Where are they? How big are they? How much energy do you use? What economic contribution do you make? What is the value of your exports?” And the answer would be “er, we don’t really know”, which is not the best place to start a grown-up discussion with any government, especially the European Commission. Policy makers have a low threshold for assertion unsupported by data and all policy decisions need to have an evidence base. Having answers (that we can substantiate) to any of those questions would enable us to engage much more confidently and effectively in policy dialogue as a sector both domestically and at EU level.

What information do we need?  Sector definition: A definition of the sector in terms that policy makers understand  Data centre types: Categories of operation with approximate proportion (colo /IT services provider/enterprise)  Economic contribution: An evaluation of the economic contribution direct and indirect, that data centres make. Proxies will be needed. This is the most critical dataset.  Value of exports: The value of our exports in terms of digital services plus physical, consultancy and advisory.  Total annual power consumption for data centres by country (recognisable facilities): Expressed as TWh.  Total employment: How many people are employed directly and indirectly. What level jobs? What value add?  Growth trends: Historical sector growth and projected sector growth

What information would be nice to have?  Number of facilities: Total number of recognisable facilities (ie data centre conforming to definition as opposed to comms nodes or server rooms).  Number of operators: Approxiumate number of data centre operators by category.  Total area of data centre white space in square metres: Aggregated total of all data centre space plus separate totals for enterprise and colo. No individual sites would be mentioned.  Range of sizes by square metres of white space: Approx number of date centres in different size categories.  Total instantaneous power capacity: Total power provisioning for active sites, expressed as TW/MW or MVA.  Renewable energy: Estimated percentage of energy used that comes from renewable sources.  Scope 1 vs Scope 2 emissions: Proportion of energy consumption in scope 1 as opposed to scope 2 (i.e. gas oil + gas: electricity). (We expect this proportion to be below or around 1%).  Average power draw per square metre / per rack? for the sector as a whole: We could also express this separately for colo and enterprise. This would need some annotation.  Rack density: Average racks per M2 or M2 per rack – colo/enterprise.

How should this data be collected? The data centre sector has historically been remarkably unwilling to part with market and operational data, even when there is a strong quid pro quo. This means that there must be a compelling incentive, that the objectives and the way in which the information will be used are clearly defined, and that governance is immaculate. While any outputs are likely to be anonymised and aggregated, the process, sources and assumptions will still need to be transparent.

For further information please contact: [email protected]