IJGlobal, published by the same company as Capacity, says in its new report on digital infrastructure (DI) that, while 65.3% say reducing costs is the main benefit of DI and 61.1% say resilience is the second main benefit, even – 70% – worry about cyber security.
The 36-page report, published this week, sees “a rapid development in the sector as the market evolves swiftly and participants become increasingly comfortable with it as an asset class”.
The report received international responses from almost 200 infrastructure and energy industry professionals who are involved in delivering, financing, lending or advising on transactions in digital infrastructure.
IJGlobal expects this trend will continue in coming years with a corresponding increase in market activity.
The report lists the US, Singapore, Denmark, Sweden and Hong Kong as the top five in digital infrastructure competitiveness, followed by Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Korea, Norway and Finland. The survey covers knowledge, technology and future readiness.
It sees the main challenges to digital infrastructure as government and regulatory policies, followed by insufficient technical expertise.
The report notes sardonically that Germany, Europe’s largest economy, “is an example of a country combining government inertia with a tight digital skills market”.
IJGlobal says Germany “has suffered a significant loss in competitiveness over the last three years” and adds: “In 2016 the German ministry responsible for infrastructure and digital infrastructure announced a 14-year, €265 billion infrastructure investment programme in traditional infrastructure including roads, railways and waterways. However, it included no mention of digital infrastructure.”
The report says the 56% of those it surveyed say that roads and railways are going to be most outpaced by DI.
IJGlobal’s report on digital infrastructure is available here.
