DTZ strengthens Data Centres team

DTZ, a global leader in commercial real estate services, has announced that it has significantly strengthened its Data Centres offering by recruiting a team of three to build on its existing success in this specialist area.

Senior director Mark Trevor, director Begoña Cerdan and associate director Michael Hunter will be based at DTZ’s UK headquarters in Old Broad Street, London, but will work with clients around the world.

They join director Steve Kirby and will report to international director Jon Leedham. The team provides services including consultancy, research, procurement, sales and leasing, commercial due diligence (for both real estate and business investors), operator and vendor strategy, valuations, planning support and site and facility due diligence.

Additionally, DTZ’s engineering team, led by Tony Comber, brings Uptime Institute accredited experience into data centre and mission critical systems design, technical due diligence and FM audit capabilities.

Mark Trevor, who has worked in the sector since its inception nearly 15 years ago, said: “Over that period IT operations have evolved to become a crucial aspect of most organisational operations. Every section of the UK economy now relies on data centres either directly or indirectly, whether through cloud or traditional data centres, including public sector, financial services, utilities, retail, telecommunications, technology, corporates and SMEs.

“IT outsourcing continues to grow at a significant rate as more and more companies, whatever their size, are finding that it offers them a cost effective and flexible alternative to operating in-house IT infrastructure.”

Whilst the US continues to be the world’s largest data centre market the UK, particularly in the south east with the 10 largest vendors providing over 2.6 million square feet of technical space or 370 MW of IT load, remains the largest concentration of data centres in Europe.

Jon Leedham added: “Data centres represent a distinct and key sector within real estate requiring specialist expertise. Expanding our team by bringing in Mark, Begoña and Michael, leaders in this field, alongside Steve puts us at the forefront of this growth area. It also gives us the ability to add significant value to our existing global occupier clients and other corporates.”