INDUSTRY NEWS
BSRIA study shows global cabling market declined in 2015
The recently published BSRIA market intelligence study shows that the global structured cabling market declined by three per cent to $ 6bn in 2015 and from $ 6.2bn in 2014 .
The study found that structured cabling installed in local area networks ( LAN ) in buildings continues to dominate the market accounting for just over 80 per cent of the products sold , while the cabling installed in data centres are just below 20 per cent . The data centre segment has increased year-onyear except for 2012 and fell by just over two per cent in 2015 . The decrease seen in the LAN market in 2015 was slightly higher than the decline experienced in data centres and followed several years with no or very limited growth .
The cabling industry – and particularly the LAN segment – which is dominated by copper products – continues to see commoditisation of cabling with increasing sales of low cost brands sold as distributors ’ private labels and solutions supplied by low cost suppliers .
Lone Hansen , WMI manager – I . T . Cable Group , BSRIA , said , ‘ The products installed in data centres are more than two thirds fibre products and the uptake of fibre continues to increase driven particularly by large and cloud data centres . Most of the hyper scale data centres are 90 per cent – 100 per cent fibre and both medium and large data centres are seeing an increase in use of fibre .
‘ Copper cabling continues to be installed in computer rooms and small data centres and are more common in colocation data centres compared to enterprise data centres as colocation data centres in general are more cost focused .’ Sales of pre-terminated fibre units ( cassettes , connectors and trunk cables ) have increased significantly year-on-year since BSRIA started collecting the sales figures in 2011 . The growth was 24 per cent in 2013 , 19 per cent in 2014 and one per cent in 2015 .
Sales of Category 6A continue to increase and accounts for 18 per cent of the cabling solutions sold by volume in 2015 . However , the uptake varies significantly depending on the where in the world the cabling is installed . The uptake is relatively low in Americas and AsiaPac , while Europe and the Middle East have a much higher usage of Category 6A solutions .
Data centre construction market valued at £ 1bn
The market for data centre construction is estimated to be valued at just over £ 1bn in 2015 , following three years of market consolidation , according to the Data Centre Construction Market Report – UK 2016-2020 Analysis , recently published by AMA Research .
The performance has been variable in recent years , with construction demand affected by an oversupply of data centre resources in the colocation sector , followed by a period where the surplus capacity has been used to soak up modestly increasing demand . The effects of the government ’ s data centre consolidation programme are also contributing to the variable market performance .
Output in 2015 was generally relatively poor as the economy faltered somewhat and the government started the process of streamlining their estate , while the wholesale and c-location sector came under pressure from having too much available space . The private data centre construction market has also been relatively subdued in recent years , though since 2014 there have been greater levels of confidence in investing in business infrastructure . The increase in political stability and the improvement in the economy coupled with more projects getting underway in the latter half of 2015 , have led to a more positive outlook for 2016 .
The government owns a large amount of data centres and as such has a significant influence on the replacement and maintenance sector of the market . While commercial developers , such as colocation providers , account for a significant share of new builds due to their large scale and the high specifications , the majority of the existing data centre estate belongs to private businesses . The largest geographical UK data centre cluster remains in the London and M25 area , though there is growth outside of this region , with large campus style data centres established in areas such as Wiltshire , Leicestershire , South Wales and Cambridgeshire . There is a trend of migration from London to regional areas as the data centre pricing varies by geographical data centre cluster , with London & M25 area average pricing significantly higher than the UK average .
Energy efficiency is a key driver of market performance . The effects of improving energy efficiency in data centres can be seen immediately , bringing the additional benefit of substantial savings on operational costs , and this has driven demand for modular solutions , from rack based solutions to complete data centre pods and containerised solutions .
Data centre construction is emerging as a significant sector in its own right , and one key trend seen in recent years is that of integrated service offerings . While most large M & E contracting businesses are key players in this market , companies involved in data centre construction range from major building contracting groups and commercial developers , to data centre specialists and operators , modular building manufacturers and IT equipment suppliers .
‘ Recently , there have been growing concerns about data sovereignty and the ‘ safe harbour ’ ruling , something which is likely to lead to greater levels of storage of data in the UK and Europe by large scale US corporations ,’ said Keith Taylor , director of AMA Research . ‘ At the end of 2015 a number of major projects have been announced which will be implemented across 2016 and 2017 , in particular the large scale data centres for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft , and these together with other major programmes should provide some impetus to the market in the next year or two .’
CEDIA and Certsure unite to educate contractors
CEDIA has partnered with Certsure , a foundation for building services certification , to host a new two day course .
Titled Data Cabling for Domestic Installers , the course has been designed specifically for electricians who are planning to extend their services to the smart home industry .
Throughout the course , delegates will be guided through practical demonstrations , including fitting and testing connections and wiring a data network suitable for a smart home . Day one will cover ‘ Cables and Connectivity ’ with day two focusing on ‘ Data Networks in Residential Properties ’. The training will conclude with a Q & A followed by a short written test .
‘ I have witnessed first-hand the level of skills and experience CEDIA has in delivering networking courses for installers ,’ commented Alan Charlton , head of training and consultancy at Certsure . ‘ With its leading presence in the industry , I knew CEDIA would be the perfect partner to deliver a course which is specific to domestic electricians .’
After successfully completing this course , delegates will be able to develop their knowledge and skills in other areas of smart home technology , including audio and video distribution , subsystem integration and control .
6