New data from Synergy Research Group shows that the total number of large data centers operated by hyperscale providers have tripled since the beginning of 2013.
The facilities are popping up faster in Europe, The Middle East, and Asia-Pac regions but the US still has almost 40 percent of the major data center sites. In the latest rankings, the US was followed by China (10 percent), Japan (7 percent).
The research is based on an analysis of the data center footprint of 20 of the world’s major cloud and internet service firms. There were 430 facilities counted in 2018, so since the last report 74 hyperscale facilities were completed.
Cloud burst
According to the research, Amazon and Microsoft opened the most data centers in the last twelve months, Google and Alibaba are the next most active companies. In light of Oracle's push to catch up to the other cloud providers, the tech firm has a noticeable data center presence - but still less than its competitors.
John Dinsdale, a chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research Group said: "There were more new hyperscale data centers opened in the last four quarters than in the preceding four quarters.
"In addition to the 504 current hyperscale data centers we have visibility of a further 151 that are at various stages of planning or building, showing that there is no end in sight to the data center building boom."
Synergy research indicates that over 70 percent of all hyperscale data centers are located in leased facilities from data center operators or are owned by partners.
An important thing to note is Synergy keeps its definition of hyperscale a secret, which is only revealed to paying customers. The research firm previously told DCD that the total cost of the facilities plays an important role in its analysis.
