Synergy Research Group estimates that cloud and internet service providers expanded the number of their worldwide hyperscale data center facilities to 430 by the end of 2018. The figure represents an increase of 11% over the 2017, with most of these in the U.S., according to the market research firm.
The U.S. is home to 40% of the world’s hyperscale data centers, according to Synergy Research (see graph above). However, most of last year’s new construction on a percentage basis occurred in the Asia-Pacific and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) regions, the company reports. In terms of total numbers, operators opened new hyperscale data centers in 17 countries, with the U.S. and Hong Kong the most popular locations.
Related article: Hyperscale capex up 53% year-on-year in 2018: Synergy Research
Synergy Research tracked the activities of 20 of the world’s major cloud and internet service firms, including what the market research firm asserts are the largest operators in SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, search, social networking, e-commerce, and gaming. Among these companies, Amazon and Google opened the most data centers last year, according to Synergy Research. The companies tracked average 22 data centers each, although Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM have the largest footprints, with at least 55 data center locations and at least three facilities in the four main regions Synergy Research tracks (North America, Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and Latin America). Alibaba and Oracle have expansive footprints as well, while many other firms have focused their facilities in either the U.S. (including Apple, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, and Yahoo) or China (e.g., Baidu and Tencent).
“Hyperscale growth goes on unabated, with company revenues growing by an average 24% per year and their capex growing by over 40% - much of which is going into building and equipping data centers,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research Group. “In addition to the 430 current hyperscale data centers, we have visibility of a further 132 that are at various stages of planning or building. There is no end in sight to the data center building boom.”
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