Although mature markets such as the US and Europe maintain a larger share of the data center rack market, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 14.6% during the forecast period. Companies design their data centers by selecting the ideal racks for their needs and the server room to house them efficiently. This helps avoid under- or over-provisioning of power and cooling resources in new facilities. The increasing adoption of non-standard racks is primarily driven by the need to include more servers in the data center infrastructure, improve airflow management, and accommodate more cabling within rack systems.
In this report, the data center rack market has been broadly segmented by frame design: open frame, closed frame, and custom; by frame size: 19-inch and others; by rack unit: 36U, 42U, 45U, 48U, and others; and by services: consulting services, installation and support services, and professional services. By end user: small and medium-sized businesses and large organizations; by region: North America, APAC, Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. Data center rack market growth is primarily driven by IT and telecommunications, BFSI, media and entertainment, the public sector, and healthcare worldwide.
Geographically, North America (comprising the US and Canada) is estimated to hold the largest share of the global data center rack market in 2014 at 38.6%, followed by Europe. The primary driver of market growth in North America is the need to reduce network infrastructure space and power consumption. APAC is the fastest-growing segment in the data center rack market due to significant investment from the banking, insurance, telecommunications, and government sectors, which require new data centers.
The global data center rack market is competitive, with major players and local manufacturers. As of 2014, the global data center rack market is estimated to be dominated by players such as Hewlett Packard (USA), Dell (USA), IBM (USA), Eaton (Ireland), Emerson Network (USA), Schneider Electric (France), and Rittal (Germany). New product launches, alliances, agreements, collaborations, and acquisitions are the main strategies adopted by most market players to achieve growth in the data center rack market.
These new data centers are needed to support development-related projects in emerging economies like China and India.
The most common standard data center rack is 2 meters tall and 19 inches wide, and can accommodate 42U of rack-mounted server equipment. There are many rack size options, ranging up to 27 inches wide and 58U tall. Modern racks feature precision cooling, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), power distribution units (PDUs), and cable management with a lockable cabinet. The rack also requires additional accessories for cable management, power distribution, and equipment mounting. Hyperscale data center operators have begun using taller-than-standard racks to achieve the highest possible server density within the data center area.
