This IDC study is based on the findings of direct interviews with leading communication carriers in Japan on the current situation of Internet datacenter (iDC) provided by communication carriers, its characteristics and future directions. The study analyzes the market by service category and forecasts the size of the iDC market between 2004 and 2009. At the same time, the study analyzes the position and share of communication carriers in comparison with the situation of the entire iDC market that includes IT vendors and systems integration (SI) vendors.

"iDC provided by Japanese communication carriers got on a recovery track in 2003 and continues to grow in 2004 as well as in 2005. The operating rate of collocation sites is increasing and carriers' revenue is also growing. This suggests that user companies highly evaluate solid and flexible facilities of carriers, Internet eXchange (IX) and network connectivity, and carriers' high technical level. In addition, interest in disaster measures and risk distribution is increasing as indicated by keywords such as disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC), and IDC believes that datacenter is expected to further grow as integrated service of outsourcing features. On the other hand, carriers' iDC face several problems in competition with IT vendors and SI vendors. There are many challenges to be solved for carriers to expand their iDC amid severe competition with other providers and to obtain solid trust from user companies," observes Toshihiro Mishima, research manager, Japan Communication Group, IDC Japan.