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Consolidation in Global Data Center Colocation Market

Large enterprises continue to move some of their IT data center infrastructure to colocation facilities. That said, there was more vendor consolidation activity during last year, as a few key players decided to reduce their presence or totally exit the market.

According to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research, the global colocation and wholesale market revenue will top $48 billion by 2021 in its latest quarterly release of the Data Center KnowledgeBase (DCKB), which tracks nearly 4,500 data centers operated by 1,193 companies worldwide.

Colo Data Center Market Development

In Q3 2016, the data center colocation and wholesale market gained $28.9 billion in annualized revenue. The majority of this revenue (42 percent) was generated in North America, with Asia-Pacific generating 31 percent.

Following a year of significant M&A activity in 2015, the first three quarters of 2016 maintained the momentum with notable industry consolidation that included Equinix completing its acquisition of Telecity Group, Tierpoint buying Windstream and Digital Realty Trust taking on eight of Equinix’s European data centers, among many other deals.


According to the 451 Research assessment, the data center market continues to grow, not only in many of the main markets, but increasingly in edge markets outside of the global top 20.

"Interest in edge markets is one of the factors driving consolidation," said Leika Kawasaki, senior analyst at 451 Research. "Over the next one to two years, we expect to see growing interest from top providers and investors in markets outside of the top 20, particularly in Asia and Latin America."

In terms of annualized colocation and wholesale revenue, as of Q3 2016 Equinix and Digital Realty remained the global leaders, with 9.5 percent and 5.7 percent share, respectively.

Once the Equinix acquisition of Verizon's data center business closes in mid-2017, Equinix market share is expected to expand to 11.4 percent of global annualized revenue, equivalent to double that of the second-largest provider, Digital Realty Trust.

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