News on 12 January 2001

The colocation industry will see significant developments in the near future, with the market evolving dramatically, says Pan-European carrier-neutral colocation business IXEurope reports in its White Paper that

IXEurope says colocation providers who offer diversity and neutrality will obtain the competitive edge within the marketplace. The company also believes a winning formula will consist of dynamic, internal marketplaces with mixed customer bases such as ISPs content providers, software vendors, ASPs and corporates. Environmental best practice was also identified as a key issue.

CEO Guy Willner said: "The land grab is over - now it's all about operational efficiency and delivering service to customers. We see a number of real-estate players in the sector coming to a sticky end as shortfalls in their operational skills and market awareness hits them hard. There will also be significant consolidation, with some of the first moves amongst publicly quoted companies, where disappointing results have driven their investors to seek comfort through scale.”

“Our perspective of the changing colocation market suggests exciting and rewarding times ahead for the industry in the emerging networked economy. This White Paper endorses our conviction that value-added services will be the driver for a new breed of colocation companies,” he continued.

IXEurope’s White Paper also predicts that a new colocation model will emerge in the established market as basic services become commodity items. It believes providers who move upstream from offering basic services to offering complex, value-added-services such as data and content management and integration of back-end processes will have further opportunities to increase revenues and profits.

www.ixeurope.com