451 Research Report: Cloud, Connectivity and Colocation in Germany

Germany has one of the most mature markets for hosting and data centre services in Europe yet business leaders in Germany say they don’t have access to the right mix of service providers, data centre infrastructure or cloud services. They say they are challenged by Germany’s strict attitudes to data protection and focus on security. Are these really the issues facing German business leaders?

This survey sought to understand more about the challenges facing German enterprises.

For this report 451 surveyed 100 companies. The companies were all headquartered in Germany with 65% having more than 1000 employees and 75% with revenues above €100 million per annum. Companies came from a wide range of industry sectors including Telecommunications, Automotive, Engineering & Manufacturing and Financial Services.

Key findings:

• Over the next two years German enterprises will increase their emphasis on cloud transformation as they seek to move their businesses forward.
• Many German enterprises are headquartered outside of the country’s main data centre and services market of Frankfurt. In many cases the services or data infrastructure does not exist in the local area. Almost one-third of respondents still operate their own data centre facilities.
• German organisations have an appetite for digital transformation, but many say they lack access (or an understanding of how to access) suitable service providers and infrastructure. Many also struggle to identify where data needs to be stored for regulatory purposes. In recent years hyperscale providers have worked to identify local custodians and more local service providers have started to offer cloud services. Data centre providers have also started offering test environments to build knowledge and familiarity with the cloud.
• Colocation is expected to play an important role in how organisations access and roll out new services although there was a lack of understanding of all the benefits of colocation.
• German organisations need to carefully consider connectivity options at key hubs, such as Frankfurt and outside of Germany as they seek international expansion.
• Security is one of the largest perceived challenges German enterprises face, along with rising costs and pressure from global competitors entering domestic markets.

Take a few minutes to read the full report and understand more about the challenges facing Germany enterprises.