Executive Summary Colocation markets around the world flashed conflicting signals of growth in 2013. While several secondary markets have experienced robust colocation capacity growth and indicate strong optimism for further expansion, a number of core markets have high site vacancy levels. Operators in these markets appear to be less enthusiastic about near-term growth prospects. TeleGeography s Colocation Database is an online directory containing profiles of 2,918 colocation sites around the world, coupled with analysis of market capacity and provider presence based on survey data from more than 1,400 sites and internal company estimates. Providers Colocation refers to shared data center space for power, cooling, and network interconnection. Diverse entities, spanning carrier networks, content providers, private academic networks, government organizations, investment firms, and numerous other types of networks require such shared space. Many major enterprises like Google, Microsoft, and HP operate their own data centers, which are chiefly used to house the companies own servers and rarely offer any kind of public colocation services. With more than 100 sites worldwide and over 9 million square feet of gross floor space, Equinix owns, by far, the most real estate of any retail colocation provider (see Figure: Largest Operators by Gross Floor Space, 2013). The company expanded its gross colocation space by just 3 percent in 2013, slowing significantly from the nearly 22 percent growth it undertook the previous year. With nearly 5.5 million square feet of gross floor space and more than 50 sites, CenturyLink s SAVVIS has a significant footprint as well. Each of the 10 largest providers covered in this study operates more than 1 million square feet of colocation space. 1
FIGURE 1 Largest Operators by Gross Floor Space, 2013 Notes: Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from survey responses and public information. Companies that requested data confidentiality are not shown. In the past two years, most prominent colocation operators have focused their capacity expansion efforts in one region (see Figure: Retail Operators with Largest Amount of New Colocation Site Capacity, 2011 2013 (million sq ft)). The exceptions to this trend include Equinix, which expanded its footprint across the globe, and CyrusOne and SAVVIS, which both undertook new developments in the U.S. and Singapore. Several operators concentrated new development exclusively in single countries, including the U.S., Australia, Luxembourg, and India. 2
FIGURE 2 Retail Operators with Largest Amount of New Colocation Site Capacity, 2011 2013 (million sq ft) Notes: New colocation capacity refers to square footage of new colocation sites launched by operators between August 2011 and August 2013. Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from survey responses and public information. Companies that requested data confidentiality are not shown. Power and Cooling Power is as important a measure of capacity as space when considering colocation facilities. Tremendous amounts of power are needed to support ever larger data centers and increasingly sophisticated servers. According to TeleGeography survey data and estimates, aggregate power used for shared data center space in the New York, Washington, D.C., and London metro areas each exceeds 400 MW (see Figure: Largest Metro Areas for Colocation by Gross Power (MW), 2013). Several secondary U.S. colocation markets, including Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, and Seattle, have between 130 and 200 MW of power available for colocation data centers. 3
FIGURE 3 Largest Metro Areas for Colocation by Gross Power (MW), 2013 Notes: Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from survey responses, public information, and internal company estimates. Some metro areas with sizable colocation presence are not depicted due to insufficient data. Connectivity One of the core purposes of a colocation site is to serve as a point of network interconnection. External connectivity at colocation sites is supplied by global, regional, and local carriers that have a physical presence in the facilities. As in previous years, Verizon, Level 3, and Cogent have the most site presence, with numerous PoPs in both North America and Europe (see Figure: Top Bandwidth Providers to Colocation Sites). AT&T, XO, Zayo Group, and CenturyLink are particularly well-connected in North America, while Colt, BT, and Deutsche Telekom provide extensive connectivity at European sites. 4
FIGURE 4 Top Bandwidth Providers to Colocation Sites Notes: Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from colocation operator survey responses and public information. Results are not derived from survey of bandwidth providers. Some colocation operators chose not to disclose bandwidth operators connected to their sites. Major carriers often connect to Points of Presence (PoPs) that are not colocation sites. Cloud services require robust power and connectivity, so cloud providers typically house their servers in major colocation facilities and data centers. The cloud computing market is quickly evolving into a hybrid market, where many customers seek a mix of their own server colocation space combined with some cloud connectivity. Colocation providers are increasingly addressing this demand by offering cloud services of their own. About 55 percent of respondents to TeleGeography s Colocation Database survey indicate that their sites offer Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). On a metro level, there is quite a bit of variance when it comes to cloud provisioning (see Figure: Percentage of Sites Offering IaaS by Metro, 2013). Notably, colocation operators in Paris and London are among the most likely to offer IaaS in their data centers, while only a minority of operators report that they offer IaaS in the major U.S. hubs of New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Cloud provisioning is nearly ubiquitous among colocation operators in several key regional hubs including Stockholm, Denver, and Toronto. 5
FIGURE 5 Percentage of Sites Offering IaaS by Metro, 2013 Notes: Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from survey responses. Metro Capacity Gross colocation capacity growth tends to be chunky in nature. In smaller markets, growth is often marked by periods when few, if any, operators invest in new facilities, followed by a sudden influx of capacity due to the launch of one or more new sites. In larger markets, new investments in colocation space are continual, but new facilities generally have a smaller effect on the already-vast amounts of capacity in service. Long-term growth across markets tends to be somewhat modest in large and smaller markets alike. Among markets targeted in TeleGeography s Colocation Database update, those in Asia have seen the fastest growth in gross retail colocation capacity, averaging 15 percent compounded annually over the past four years. Europe and North America have averaged nearly identical growth of 10 percent and 11 percent, respectively. High levels of colocation capacity are only optimal if customers demand it. In struggling to maintain a supply and demand balance, operators must determine how much of their gross space should be fitted for usable server space at any given time. Of that usable server space, the amount of current availability or vacancy can be a good indicator of demand. On average, operators in markets analyzed in Europe reported 38 percent availability, and those in North America reported 34 percent vacancy rates. Operators in European markets like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, and Paris all reported relatively high vacancy levels around 40 percent (see Figure: Colocation Space Available for Select Metro Areas, 2013). In the U.S., New York s reported vacancy levels were comparable to those seen in the 6
major European markets, at around 44 percent. Conversely, reported vacancy levels in San Francisco and the larger Silicon Valley area were only 24 percent as of 2013. FIGURE 6 Colocation Space Available for Select Metro Areas, 2013 Notes: Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from survey responses and public information. Percentages represent weighted average floor space. With relatively high vacancy levels, operators in major European and U.S. hubs have indicated low expectations for expansion in the near term. In 2013, less than 35 percent of operators in Frankfurt, London, New York, and Paris indicated that they plan further expansions in those metro areas in the near future (see Figure: Percentage of Respondents Planning to Increase Presence by Metro Area). In San Francisco, where vacancy levels were quite low, operators broke with the pessimistic trend seen in other key markets. Around 75 percent of responding operators there indicated plans to invest in additional colocation capacity in the near future. 7
FIGURE 7 Percentage of Respondents Planning to Increase Presence by Metro Area Notes: Based on data collected by TeleGeography in 2013 from survey responses. Respondents were asked whether or not they planned to increase operational capacity at a given site and/or in that site s metro area within the next 2 years. 8
The content on the preceding pages is a section from TeleGeography's Colocation Database The work is based on sources believed to be reliable, but the publisher does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information for any purpose and is not responsible for any errors or omissions. This work is for the confidential use of subscribers. Neither the whole nor any part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without prior written consent from PriMetrica, Inc. All rights reserved. TeleGeography A Division of PriMetrica, Inc. Washington, D.C. / San Diego / Exeter U.S. tel: +1 202 741 0020 / U.K. tel: +44 1392 315567. www.telegeography.com 9