E D I T O R ' S Q U E S T I O N

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Just over half of that hyperscale capacity is now in own-built , owned data centres with the balance being in leased facilities . With non-hyperscale colocation capacity accounting for another 22 % of capacity , that leaves on-premise data centres with just 37 % of the total .

This is in stark contrast to six years ago when almost 60 % of data centre capacity was in on-premise facilities . Looking ahead to 2029 , hyperscale operators will account for over 60 % of all capacity , while on-premise will drop to just 20 %.

Over that period , the total capacity of all data centres will continue to rise rapidly , driven primarily by hyperscale capacity growing almost threefold over the next six years . While the colocation share of total capacity will slowly decrease , colocation capacity will continue to rise steadily . On-premise share of the total will drop by almost 3 % per year , though the actual capacity of on-premise data centres will remain relatively stable .

Data centre capacity trends

The Synergy data is based on a combination of several detailed quarterly tracking research services , which enables it to build a comprehensive analysis of data centre capacity , with breakouts by region , country and metro markets .

The hyperscale research is based on an analysis of the data centre footprint and operations of the world ’ s major cloud and internet service firms , including the largest operators in SaaS , IaaS , PaaS , search , social networking , e-commerce and gaming .

The colocation research is based on Synergy ’ s in-depth tracking of the colocation market , including quarterly data on over 290 individual companies . The enterprise on-premise analysis is based on Synergy ’ s tracking of the data centre hardware market .

“ The mix of data centre capacity is quite different region by region , an example being that hyperscale owned data centre capacity is much more prevalent in the US than in either Europe or the APAC region ,” said John Dinsdale , a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group . “ However , overall , the trends are all heading in the same direction – and it is easy to see what is behind these trends .

“ In 2012 , enterprises spent 12x as much on their data centre hardware and software as they did on cloud infrastructure services , while today they spend 3x more on cloud services than they do on their own data centre infrastructure .

“ Add to that the huge growth in SaaS and consumer-oriented digital services such as social networking , e-commerce and online gaming , and the result is the burgeoning growth in hyperscale data centres .

“ Enterprises are also choosing to house an ever-growing proportion of their data centre gear in colocation facilities , further reducing the need for onpremise data centre capacity . The rise of Generative AI technology and services will only exacerbate those trends over the next few years , as hyperscale operators are better positioned to run AI operations than most enterprises ,” added Dinsdale .

Michael Winterson , Managing Director , European Data Centre Association ( EUDCA ); Anthony Milovantsev , Partner , Altman Solon ; and Ivo Ivanov , CEO , DE-CIX , highlight how collaboration and tailoring services is a route to success for enterprises among dominant hyperscale activity .

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