Hyperscale data centres surging globally, 132 more on the way

The relentless demand for more data has seen a spike both in the size and number of hyperscale data centers.

The Synergy Research Group has released research that paints an interesting picture. Not only did the number of large data center operated by hyperscale providers rise 11 percent to reach 430 in 2018, but there is still more than 130 on the way.

Synergy's research is focused on the data center footprint of 20 of the world's most prominent cloud and internet service firms, which incudes the largest operators in SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, search, social networking, eCommerce and gaming.

In terms of this growth in new data center launches, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) featured most prominently. However, the United States still claims the biggest piece of the pie with 40 percent of the major cloud and internet data center sites.

China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany are the next most popular locations, in aggregate accounting for 30 percent of the total. Over the year new hyperscale data centers were launched in 17 different countries, with the United States and Hong Kong claiming the largest number of additions.

"Hyperscale growth goes on unabated, with company revenues growing by an average 24% per year and their capital expenditure growing by over 40 percent - much of which is going into building and equipping data centers," says Synergy Research Group chief analyst and research director John Dinsdale.

"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.

The lion's share of the new data center launches were attributed to Amazon and Google, with the two hyperscale operators claiming more than half of the total. Each of the 20 companies involved in the study have on average 22 separate data center sites.

It's the usual suspects at the top with the broadest data center footprint, and they're cloud providers – Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM. Each of these companies has more than 55 data center locations with at least three in the four major regions, North America, Latin America, APAC, and EMEA.

Other companies of note with a significant data center presence include Alibaba and Oracle. Synergy asserts the remaining firms tend to have their data centers focused primarily either in the United States (like Apple, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, and Yahoo) or in China (Baidu, Tencent).