How many Data Centers are there in the world and where are they built?

By the end of 2024, there will be 5,697 public data centers worldwide, including 5,186 colocation sites and 511 hyperscale sites. The Asia-Pacific region has the highest concentration of data centers, followed by Europe and North America. ABI Research expects that by 2030, there will be 8,410 data centers in operation.

As enterprises continue to undergo digital transformation and utilize advanced technologies, the demand for cloud resources and large data centers has reached a peak. Although the number of data centers under construction around the world is growing, there are differences between regions due to factors such as regulation, law, and space availability. In addition, North America and Europe have become mature markets for data center construction, and other regions still have a lot of room for growth.

What is a data center?

A data center is a facility built to house and distribute large amounts of data. Data centers house network infrastructure, such as cooling systems and server racks, and allow third-party businesses to rent space for computing and data storage needs. The public data center market is divided into two major categories, each experiencing different growth rates and affected by different factors:

Colocation data centers: This type of data center includes any space within a building owned or leased by a company that is rented to a third party for network equipment or server storage. Colocation data centers can house multiple companies within one physical building, offering retail or wholesale space, or both.

Hyperscale data centers: These large facilities provide extensive space, power, cooling, and infrastructure to support large-scale data and cloud computing operations. Hyperscale data centers include companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, Alibaba Cloud, IBM, and Oracle.

Number of colocation data centers by region, 2024-2030

By the end of 2024, there will be 5,186 colocation data centers worldwide. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6%, the number of colocation data centers will increase to 7,640 by 2030.

Currently, Asia Pacific has the most data centers in the world (1,811 sites), followed by Europe (1,558 sites) and North America (1,357 sites). The countries with the most data centers in these regions include China, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, and France. ABI Research expects that by the end of this decade, Asia Pacific (2,126 sites), Europe (2,108 sites,) and North America (1,803 sites) will rank first, second, and third in the number of colocation data centers, respectively.

Number of colocation data centers by size, 2024-2030

Driven by the rapid adoption of generative AI and other cloud-dependent, data-intensive technologies, data center size continues to grow. The number of micro and small data centers will decrease over the remainder of this decade, but large and hyperscale data center construction will grow strongly.

Currently, large and hyperscale colocation facilities account for only 28% of the total number of data centers worldwide. However, by 2030, this number will grow to 43% as enterprises build large data centers that can accommodate AI/generative AI workloads and other data-hungry applications.

By 2030, the total power capacity of large and hyperscale data centers will reach 142,682 megawatts (MW) and 289,259 MW, respectively.

Hyperscale data centers are on the rise

Hyperscale data centers are large remote facilities with more cloud computing capabilities than enterprise data centers. Cloud service providers Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM, Alibaba, and Oracle are investing billions of dollars to build data centers around the world. This will increase the number of hyperscale data centers from 511 in 2024 to 770 in 2030.

Of all cloud hyperscalers, AWS has the most data center sites around the world, with 126 as of 2024. By 2030, this number will increase to 185. This gives AWS a market share of about 25%. By 2030, Microsoft Azure and GCP will follow AWS as the company with the most data center sites.

While North America and Europe remain the centers of innovation for hyperscale data centers, Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region. In the past few years, AWS and Google Cloud have announced plans to build data centers in Malaysia, Thailand, and New Zealand.

Source: How Many Data Centers Are There and Where Are They Being Built? (abiresearch.com)