Study Shows US with Lion's Share of Data Center Market

Data centers are widely considered to be a global enterprise, with presence all over the planet as different uses for the systems are used in different places. Entertainment, high-end data mining, a host of other options all come into play. But a recent study from Synergy Research Group suggests that the data center market has two major dominating forces holding a majority of data centers between the two: specifically, the United States and China.

It's not surprising that the first and second largest economies on the face of the Earth would be accountable for the lion's share of data center operations, but the Synergy report makes it clear how the split actually fared. The United States accounts for most of that half, representing 44 percent of the major data centers for both cloud and Internet data center sites. China, meanwhile, rounds out the half at 10 percent, representing the second largest proportion of such sites. Australia chips in five percent, tying its mother country the U.K. at the same number as well as Japan and Singapore. Germany and the Netherlands each chip in four percent of sites; and the rest of the world falls into the “other” category at a hefty 18 percent.

Based on the analysis of 13 major firms in both cloud-based services and Internet services—including social networking giants, e-commerce firms and those that offer the various “as-a-service” options—the companies reportedly control around 150 major sites worldwide, with each holding an average of 11 sites total. Within the average, though, clear differences emerged; three companies, the leaders in hyperscale cloud—Microsoft,IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS)—held at least 20 data centers each, and represented the broadest such footprint.

Synergy Research Group chief analyst and research director John Dinsdale offered up some comment regarding the study, saying “The country distribution of major data centers clearly reflects two things – the U.S. dominance of cloud and Internet technologies; and the scale and unique characteristics of the Chinese market. The ranking also reflects the relative importance of smaller countries that are often used as regional hubs – Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands and Ireland.”

Seeing the bulk of the data center market so squarely in United States hands might be a shock to some, but given the substantial number of major tech firms in the country, it may not be. With companies like eBay, Salesforce, Facebook and others—don't forget Google, Amazon and Microsoft—all running operations in the region, it's clear that plenty of high-end data center power will be needed to keep all of that aloft. Of course, knowing what we know about disaster preparedness and redundancy suggests it would likely be useful to keep operations in other regions as well. But by like token, there also may be security concerns involved, particularly when getting involved with China or the like.

As the importance of the data center market grows, knowing the geographical makeup of this market might be valuable. The world beyond the United States is starting to look like a potentially appealing niche market in the making when it comes to data center material, so we may well start seeing some big changes to come.