Data centre operators and major services held fast throughout the troubled, early days of 2020 onward.
Data Centres, once an afterthought for global enterprises, are now a cornerstone of the information economy, and well over $100 billion has poured into the asset class over the past decade, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Data Centre Market Comparison.
The Global Market Comparison report openly discusses ranking top markets for site selection and investment.
In a year full of turmoil and strife caused by an unexpected pandemic, the internet helped people across the globe work, play, and live as normally as possible given the circumstances. By powering all that makes up the internet, data centres were recognised throughout 2020 for their crucial presence in all lives, and for maintaining communication and knowledge during a period of sudden change for humanity.
Data centre operators and major services held fast throughout the troubled, early days onward; as data centres were identified as truly mission critical, and the advanced planning and scalability that defines the lives of data centre personnel-maintained uptime throughout the crisis. Several trends that were beginning prior to the year accelerated rapidly throughout 2020. Businesses were forced to continue their IT transformation with a suddenly fully remote workforce; many moved workloads straight to major cloud services.
While most of this will remain in the public cloud environment, costs and regulatory concerns may lead to some moving to a colocation or even on-premises situation. Those who can manage this hybrid IT scenario for highest efficiency and lowest cost will enjoy the greatest returns on investment.
While the recent pandemic caused construction difficulties across all sectors of commercial real estate, data centres have been less affected than most as their early designation as essential operations indicates.
Construction continued at most locations with appropriate safety measures, and although supply chains occasionally tightened, many new builds suffered minimally. This is reflected in the overall increase in construction from our previous study to this year.
Organizational needs and the move to modernize information technology have pushed operators and hyperscalers alike to action.
APAC leaders in active development include:
- Singapore
- Sydney
Of note are the number of secondary markets where the colocation sector continues to blossom, including Seoul, Mumbai, Jakarta, Portland, and Queretaro. These fast-growing regional hubs are emblematic of the smaller market expansions that began in earnest in 2020, and expectations are high for similar growth worldwide.
Key Takeaways:
- The 2020 pandemic accelerated the change in corporate IT strategy, as companies rapidly shifted to the cloud. Continuation and optimization of this shift will continue throughout the next several years, creating further emphasis on cloud services availability and connectivity across platforms. Read more in Cushman & Wakefield’s State of the Cloud Report.
- Construction of new product has skyrocketed, with the 1.6 GW under construction across markets studied last year swelling to 2.9 GW in this year’s edition. This is the equivalent of nearly two-and-a-half Northern Virginias being added to global supply, most of which has been spoken for.
- Secondary marketscontinue to grow in importance, with areas particularly in Europe and Asia of interest as some workloads move to the edge. These secondary locales often provide greater margins for data centre operators, with some growing to primary market status in future.
This study evaluated 1,189 data centres around the world, utilising a unique weighted methodology to rank 48 global markets and arrive at our Overall Top Ten External Link markets. Key emerging data centre markets are also identified in the Ten Markets to Watch External Linksection
