Emerson Network Power has released the findings of its ‘Market Pulse Asia’ survey, finalized last month, which shows market sentiment, from data centre users and influencers, has swung sharply into the positive.

The key findings of the August survey show a reversal in confidence from negative (in early 2009) to positive from the majority of respondents, although business has indicated that deployment of IT projects (project pipeline) is still lagging.

Importantly, energy efficiency is now considered the top priority by the respondents, with density (cooling) and availability (uptime) following in second and third respectively. This marks another reversal of pre-recession priorities, when availability was consistent as the number one priority.

Moreover, the survey provides key takeaways: 

• The shift from negative to positive sentiment is oftentimes a precursor to increased spend and the commissioning of new projects
• With energy efficiency as a top priority, this means that IT professionals are now associating energy efficiency  with lower costs, and less so with corporate governance or ‘green’ initiatives from past years.