The Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2022 reveals an industry that is growing, dynamic and increasingly resilient. Spending on data centers and related services is strong, despite persistent staffing shortages, supply chain delays and other obstacles. Creating a more environmentally sustainable footprint is a major and growing focus as operators brace for heightened scrutiny, new regulations and reporting requirements.

Key Findings:

• Sustainability pressures are growing. Most operators expect carbon emissions reporting requirements soon — yet many are unprepared.
• Outages are becoming more expensive and are still too frequent, but the proportion of operators reporting a significant outage is down slightly on last year.
• Many cloud applications are vulnerable to outages, despite growing confidence in cloud’s suitability for mission-critical workloads.
• Future efficiency gains will need to focus on IT power, requiring additional metrics to supplement power usage effectiveness (PUE).
• Data center equipment vendors are caught between high demand and lingering supply chain problems. Most vendors deliver with delays.
• Attracting and retaining qualified staff remains highly problematic for many operators.

Report Authors:

• Jacqueline Davis, Research Analyst
• Daniel Bizo, Research Director
• Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Research
• Owen Rogers, Research Director for Cloud Computing
• Max Smolaks, Research Analyst

Contributing Authors:

• Lenny Simon, Senior Research Associate
• Douglas Donnellan, Research Associate