Data centre people are your greatest asset

As a man who’s spent (almost) his entire working life in the data centre business, it’ still surprising to me that there is very little public awareness of those working in our industry. Occasionally the profile of our sector has been raised by stories in the mainstream press (say, the New York Times) , and sometimes by some larger brands using their data centres for PR and marketing purposes, like Apple, eBay and Amazon.

Last year, DatacenterPeople (DCP) engaged DCD Intelligence to research and write a paper on salary and skills in the data centre industry, the aim being to gain a greater understanding of salary levels, qualifications and experience of people employed in the data centre industry. As a leader in finding talent for some of the world’s most successful data centre owners, operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers, DCP is aware that this lack of information has led to difficulties for both employers and candidates in terms of knowing their worth and setting expectations.

Today, over 60% of data centre operators cite a lack of suitably qualified staff as one of the major issues they face. It is clear that there is an industry-wide problem that needs to be addressed. The sector must make itself more attractive to up and coming talent, to ensure a pipeline of personnel with relevant qualifications. The DatacenterPeople Salary White Paper gives an overview of salaries globally across the data centre industry, based on experience, level of qualification and country of operation, as well as identifying issues faced by recruiters going forward.

The data centre workforce
The paper highlights the fact that a larger percentage of data centre personnel work on the IT side than Facilities Management, yet it is facilities that has seen the highest percentage growth in terms of the number of staff employed in over the last 12 months – a 16.9% increase compared with 11.5% in IT. It’s expected that continuous changes in facility design as well as the technologies being implemented will lead to these roles merging closer together in the coming five years.

By country, it is no surprise that the most mature data centre markets also employ the largest number of people. For those that are at a growth or nascent stage, the correlation between staffing levels and growth metrics are complicated by difficult to quantify pressures including the increasing complexity of technology, and a complex evaluation of risk.

As one of the key drivers for salary is the relationship between the supply of suitably trained and qualified labour and the demand for that resource, the numbers working in each country are also an important metric.

Data centre salaries by region
Globally, the highest salaries can be found in North America. In addition to being one of most developed markets, it also accounts for almost one quarter of all the data centre white space in the world. The region has seen the highest increase in average salaries during the last 12 months at 11.9%, probably driven by demand for skilled individuals. Conversely, the lowest average salaries are found in Latin America, where the market is still emerging.

There has been a general average increase in salaries across all sectors of 3.9% over the last 12 months (source: www.culpepper.com), a number which the data centre industry has significantly outpaced by a factor of more than two in all but one region. Increasing reliance upon data centres coupled by a limited number of experienced and qualified personnel has led to almost recession proof growth in salary levels.

Salaries by country
As a general rule, the more mature a market becomes the greater the number of skilled staff are required to operate a growing number of facilities. At that point, economic forces of supply and demand come in to play, and the labour pool is able to command higher levels of remuneration. The Survey identified salaries averaging exceeding 100,000 USD in a number of countries including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Austria. The UK, Canada and Japan all trail, but not by very much.

Salaries by data centre function
As you’d expect, the highest paid in the industry are those at executive – or “C”-level management. It was interesting to note that salary levels in this layer had fallen by 1% compared to salary levels in 2011, the only category to have experienced a decline in average earnings, however slight. Earnings at other management levels have all increased with the role of Department Head seeing a 12% increase over 2011 levels.

Qualifications
Globally it appears that a technical diploma offers greater salary expectations than a graduate degree. This is, however, more likely to reflect an older and experienced workforce which has come up though an apprentice scheme or similar, probably at a time when it was less usual for large sections of the workforce to have been educated to degree level.

However, when salaries are compared with data collected during 2011, it becomes apparent that a post-graduate degree is increasingly desirable with a 12.4% increase in salary levels, compared with a very small increase (slightly more than 1%) for those with a graduate degree. Those with a doctorate earn 14% more on average than those with a post-grad, masters degree. Importantly, just as those with degrees have seen increases in salaries over the preceding 12 months, those without any tertiary or technical qualifications have seen a drop in salary.

Pay for experience
Salary in the data centre market is largely determined by the length of time spent in the industry. Experience is by far and away a greater determinant of salary level than education. Those with more than 10 years’ experience command a far higher salary than those with less than 5 years, and still a considerable amount more than those with between 5 and 10 years in the market. Those with more than 10 years’ experience are also less likely to have been educated to degree level.

The overall package
The data centre industry has proved itself to be remarkably resilient in terms of its ability to beat global economic conditions. It has outstripped average global wage increases as well as experiencing significant sector growth. The highest salaries are found in the most developed markets for data centre services; a constrained pool of suitably qualified personnel means more competition and therefore more attractive remuneration packages.

Education is becoming increasingly important although higher wage levels are not as yet immediately apparent for those who have completed tertiary education compared with those with technical qualifications. However, for those without any form of qualifications, falling wage levels indicate the industry demand for a more qualified workforce.

So what does this mean for an industry that has managed to remain ‘under the radar’ for over a decade? Well hopefully awareness will continue to rise, meaning that at least dinner table conversations will be less painful for those of us working in and around data centres.

More importantly if we are to avoid a major worldwide skills shortage the industry as a whole has to begin to promote tertiary education in our field. Maybe there is an argument for an old fashioned apprentice scheme? In the meantime, hiring suitably qualified staff will continue to be an issue. Time to call in the experts...

The DatacenterPeople Salary White Paper 2013 is available for free download from the company’s website www.datacenterpeople.org