Synergy Research Group says just 20 metro areas account for 56% of worldwide retail colocation revenues. The top 5 metros – Tokyo, New York, London, Washington and Shanghai – combined account for 25% of the worldwide market. The next 15 largest metro markets account for another 31% of the market.
Seven metros are in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.
In Q1 Equinix was the retail colocation market leader by revenue in 14 of the top 20 metros, with NTT being the only other operator to lead in more than one of the top metros. In wholesale colocation there is a somewhat different mix and ranking of metros, but the market is even more concentrated with the top 20 metros accounting for 71% of worldwide revenue.
Digital Realty is the leader in eight of the top 20 wholesale markets and Global Switch the leader in three others. Other colocation operators that feature heavily in the top 20 metros include 21Vianet, @Tokyo, China Telecom, CoreSite, CyrusOne, Interxion, KDDI, SingTel and QTS.
SRG says despite the push to build data centres closer to the edge, the top 20 metros’ share has remained largely constant at 55-56%. Beijing and Shanghai have among the highest retail colocation growth rates (measured in local currencies), with rolling annualized growth rate of over 15%.
John Dinsdale, chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research Group, says demand remains robust across the board with APAC being a standout in terms of regional growth, particularly for hyperscale operators.
“It is particularly noteworthy that the market remains concentrated around the most important economic hubs, reflecting the importance of proximity to major customers. Hyperscale operators often focus their own large data centre builds away from the major metros, in areas where real estate prices and operating costs are much lower, so they too will increasingly rely on colocation providers to help target clients in key metros. The large metros will maintain their share of the colocation market over the coming years,” he concluded.
