The research has found that 43% of the 100 respondents surveyed have outsourced data centre space and of them 28% have done so for the first time in the last 12 months. About 35% of companies, which are not outsourcing, have plans to do so in the future.

Dynamic Markets has surveyed 100 senior IT professionals responsible for data centre management in their respective companies spanning various industries.

The organisations have, on an average, outsourced 53% of their data centre requirements to third parties. According to the research, 79% of the IT managers did not believe that outsourcing has diminished their authority, while 29% felt that it has actually increased their control over the IT policies.

An earlier survey taken up by Sentrum and Dynamic Markets in September 2008, has found that while the demand for data centre capacity is increasing, IT professionals are naive about the available options, particularly on issues relating to the cost and control of data centres.

Andy Ruhan, CEO at Sentrum, said: “Data today is seen as a business critical asset in any corporation and the demand for greater levels of data storage and processing are not going to go away despite the current market downturn. Businesses need to continue to plan for the future and the trend that the research clearly shows is that most currently have plans to outsource at least some data centre space within the next year.”