March 8, 2022

Growing Demand Continues to Drive New Data Center Development

March 7, 2022 | Patricia Kirk | WealthManagement.com

The pandemic helped ramp up data center usage, as businesses suddenly faced a greater need for cloud technology to connect and support remote workers. This increase in cloud migration has accelerated growth and expansion of data centers globally, causing major data center operators to expand their footprints, according to a recent report from commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield (C&W).

“The reliance on technology platforms over last 24 months is at an all-time high, creating demand for more data center space across the world,” says Phoenix-based Carl Beardsley, senior director with JLL Capital Markets, who notes that the big operators and users are responding by building-out data space and turning it over at a high velocity.

Over the last year, U.S. users absorbed 500 megawatts (MW) of data space, says Dallas-based Bo Bond, executive managing director and leader of C&W’s global data centers team. The majority of that absorption was driven by “hyperscalers”—the largest occupiers of data centers, which are mostly cloud services firms including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft.

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