European datacentres are running out of capacity, with the majority operating at 82 per cent of their full capability, according to a survey commissioned by HP.

Part of the problem, the research indicates, is that, while datacentres play a crucial part in the functioning of European businesses, 72 per cent of CIOs feel the heads of their company's business units fail to understand the importance of datacentres and, therefore, don't fund them sufficiently.

The research for the Data Center Transformation Survey, released on Friday, was conducted by Coleman-Parkes Research on behalf of HP. The technology giant said 1,020 CIOs and business-unit heads across Europe were interviewed for the study.

Despite the economic downturn, 60 per cent of companies still plan to invest in improving their facilities, the survey found. In addition, 46 per cent of those surveyed expect to see an increase in the number of datacentre-transformation projects being planned.

According to Reinier van Hoeijen, director for datacentre-transformation services at HP EMEA, datacentre transformation, which covers consolidation or updating hardware to improve efficiency, is a way for companies to reduce costs while making their business more flexible. However, he pointed out that datacentre transformation is difficult to achieve unless the business and the IT department work in tandem.

"CIOs and business unit heads need to work together to ensure that the technology-infrastructure strategy is aligned with specific desired business benefits," van Hoeijen said in a statement. "In order to alleviate their current pressures, and ultimately reduce costs, businesses should define return on investment and the impact that transformation will have on their people, processes and infrastructure."

According to the research, companies in the UK currently have, on average, 5.7 datacentres. That figure is expected to rise to 6.1 datacentres by 2011.

The biggest challenge currently facing companies in the UK with respect to managing their datacentres, according to the report, is balancing the need to secure the investment required to improve facilities with the need to reduce capital expenditure, an issue mentioned by 53 per cent of UK companies surveyed.

Other challenges that UK companies face include achieving greater technology-infrastructure flexibility and agility to support business growth (42 per cent), and reducing capital expenditure on the datacentre (37 per cent).