Hyperscalers continued to build data centers throughout 2020 pandemic: Omdia
Cloud and colocation service providers, particularly the largest ones, maintained aggressive paces when it came to data center construction last year, according to Omdia. The market research firm says that, despite the economic and logistical obstacles COVID-19 posed, such companies opened 7.8 million square feet of data center capacity in the first half of the year. The current estimate for the second half of 2020 is 9 million square feet, Omdia reports in its latest Cloud & Colocation Data Center Building Tracker. And even more capacity should be added this year, according to Omdia analysts.
About 57% of the new capacity added in the first half of 2020 came from the large cloud service providers. The expected total for the second six months of the year, as well as the 25 million square feet expected to be added this year, will correspond to what Omdia describes as “sustained secular demand trends already in place,” with increased spending from enterprises who seek to mitigate risk via digital transformation initiatives further buttressing demand for new data center capacity.
Much of the new capacity will appear in the Asia Pacific region, although growth in North America will continue to be strong, particularly in the second half of this year, Omdia indicates (see chart above).
“Cloud and colocation service providers have been benefactors of increased SaaS and network customer demand from the pandemic response necessitating remote working and educating,” commented Alan Howard, principal analyst in the Cloud and Data Center Research Practice at Omdia. “These services are particularly recession-resistant and demand for services has been increasing, which translates to data center construction projects remaining in progress to assure they can meet demand.
“Many service providers have said that non-critical data center projects could be delayed, but as far as data centers go in this market, we don’t see many non-critical projects. In fact, if you look at just Amazon, Google and Microsoft, collectively they have announced 28 new regions, most with multiple zones,” Howard added.
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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