The study, carried out by the Tariff Consultancy, found that datacentre revenue will increase by 25 per cent a year between 2010 and 2015 as companies gear up for more data-intensive applications, from €3.2bn (£2.9bn) next year to €7.3bn in 2015.

Currently, the UK is leading the market, accounting for 16 per cent of Europe's commercial datacentre facilities, followed by Germany (14 per cent), France (10 per cent), Spain (eight per cent) and Italy and the Netherlands (both on six per cent).

"We believe that the future outlook for the datacentre operator remains sound," said Margrit Sessions, managing director of Tariff Consultancy.

"In general, the demand for new space from the telecoms operator, the ISP, the content provider and systems integrator as well as the enterprise will allow datacentre pricing to increase over time. Raised floor space will increase with new build facilities and the expansion of existing ones. Also, operators are increasing the efficiency of their current floor space to allow the deployment of more dense applications."

According to the study, the most expensive datacentre operations are in Denmark, Switzerland and Ireland, with rates per rack ranging from €1,050 to €1,300 month. France, Finland and Sweden are cheaper because of the low cost of electicity.

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