Data center growth in the Asia Pacific market saw growth of 24% in 2021, according to a new report.

The DC Byte Q4 2021 ‘Data Center Report', published in partnership with Knight Frank, found the APAC market saw an increase of 185MW of new capacity across the region in Q4 and 1.500GW for the year.

By comparison, EMEA also demonstrated strong growth of 500MW in Q4, bringing the total aggregate supply to 1.582GW for the year, amounting to a 19% increase.

Following a slight drop off in growth in Q3 across EMEA, the fourth quarter of 2021 saw the largest increase in supply for the year. This follows a record breaking 2020, and the 1.582GW growth in 2021 equates to 71% of new supply seen in 2020.

When looking at the Tier 1 markets, there were significant development announcements in Paris, Frankfurt and London, with 287MW, 145MW and 105MW of new supply added to these markets respectively.

In APAC, the gigawatt markets of Tokyo and Shanghai added significant capacity in 2021, adding between 300MW to 400MW each, to their respective markets. The announcement by the Chinese authorities of the establishment of up to four mega clusters of data centers in the north and west of the country, was followed by a subsequent statement of a further ten national data center clusters as part of the broader “Eastern Data and Western Computing” strategy.

Whilst in Southeast Asia, Singapore lifted its hold on new data center builds after a two-year moratorium. Under a new pilot programme, up to 60MW of capacity will be made available in 2022, to developments of between 10MW to 30MW each.

“EMEA and APAC continue to jostle for supremacy,” says Ed Galvin, founder and CEO at DC Byte.

“2021 saw EMEA cooling off slightly after the incredible 2.627GW growth we saw in 2020, with 1.582GW of new supply. Long term sustained development in the sector remains strong with a CAGR of 16.9% across both regions in the past five years," he says.

"2021 was the first year following the surge in demand for data center space and it's great to see the industry continuing to provide new capacity in the face of increasing challenges around power availability and land pricing.

Darren Mansfield, Data Centers Research Lead at Knight Frank, adds, “The data center landscape continues to develop at pace, underpinned by both strategic deployment of hyperscale operations and a sustained drive towards third-party colocation.

"Fundamentally, the needs of businesses are increasing," he says.

"Although the experiences of the pandemic meant that new business demand for data center services initially centered on continuity, firms are now increasingly looking beyond digitalisation as just a survival mechanism and are accelerating the role of digital or digitally enhanced service offerings.

"This shift is amplifying business spending on digital transformation, with the expected double-digit increase cementing the case for data center development.