The vast majority of companies do not follow the advice of consultants when designing and building data centres, new research has found, even when they have paid for that advice.

A survey of 100 senior IT professionals at companies with 250 or more employees found that 35% of respondents did not feel their company held sufficient knowledge to design data centre specifications in-house, and that 88% of respondents would seek advice when provisioning a new data centre.

However, the study, commissioned by data centre operator Sentrum, discovered that 97% had either ignored or disregarded the advice of consultants during this process. “Advice is commonly rejected, which suggests that consultants are either not doing their homework or not gaining the trust and understanding of their client,” commented Franek Sodzawiczny, development director and partner at Sentrum.