10 Data Center Companies You Need To Watch In 2022
From Amazon Web Services and Microsoft to Apple and Equinix, here are 10 data center companies you need to watch in 2022 as the data center market surges.
10 Hot Data Center Companies In 2022
The data center market will continue to be red-hot in 2022 as investors throw billions of dollars into the market, while hyperscalers Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft are spending billions on their own around building new facilities to accommodate the surge in cloud services demand.
Data center and colocation giants Equinix and Digital Realty are also spending billions on acquisitions to grow their already massive global footprints as data centers continue to be the foundation of the digital world.
Amid the global COVID-19 crisis that is fueling cloud adoption and work from home, the global market for internet data centers is projected to reach $143 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of more than 13 percent over the next four years, according to market research firm Research and Markets.
CRN breaks down the 10 market-leading data center companies you need to watch in 2022.
Amazon Web Services
Why You Should Watch: Amazon is the biggest spender on new data centers on the planet.
Amazon Web Services will continue to invest billions on expanding on its global data center footprint in 2022 as its cloud business continues to climb. For its most recent third fiscal quarter, Amazon reported AWS sales were up 39 percent year over year to $16.1 billion.
The Seattle-based public cloud titan has been the largest spender on data centers in the world for the past several years, according to IT market research firm Synergy Research Group. AWS spends billions each quarter on equipping and building massive hyperscale data centers.
For example, AWS recently unveiled plans to open a new data center campus in New Zealand by 2024 that will consist of three availability zones. Globally, AWS has 81 data center availability zones across 25 regions with plans to launch 24 more availability zones and eight more AWS regions in the future.
With cloud adoption and revenue continuing to accelerate at such a rapid pace, AWS shows no signs of slowing down its data center charge in 2022.
American Tower
Why You Should Watch: American Tower acquired CoreSite for $10.1 billion.
American Tower significantly entered the data center market just a few weeks ago with its $10.1 billion blockbuster purchase of one of the biggest data center operators in the U.S. in CoreSite.
Boston-based American Tower is looking to shake up the U.S. data center market with plans to create a “differentiated” communications platform to accelerate global 5G deployments after acquiring CoreSite’s 25 data centers.
“We expect the combination of our leading global distributed real estate portfolio and CoreSite’s high-quality, interconnection-focused data center business to help position American Tower to lead in the 5G world,” said American Tower CEO Tom Bartlett when the acquisition was unveiled in late 2021.
The merger brings together American Tower’s wireless connectivity at the mobile edge and CoreSite’s interconnected data centers at the core edge to create an extended edge for customers that will seamlessly support high-performance, low-latency applications. CoreSite was the fourth largest U.S. data center operator in the U.S. in terms of colocation and data center revenue, according to Synergy Research Group.
American Tower is a new player in the U.S. data center market that will be interesting to watch in 2022.
Apple
Why You Should Watch: Apple’s market cap is nearly $3 trillion and it is still one of the biggest data center spenders.
In the first day of trading in 2022, Apple for a brief moment became the first publicly traded company in history to reach a $3 trillion market value. The news came just 17 months after Apple became a $2 trillion company.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company was a top five data center spender in the first half of 2021 in terms of building new and updating existing hyperscale facilities, according to Synergy Research Group. Compared with global spenders like AWS and Equinix, Apple tends to have its data centers focused primarily in the U.S.
Although Apple’s data center plans aren’t as bullish as the market leaders, the company still opens a few data centers on an annual basis. For example, Apple is expected to begin construction of a $1.3 billion data center in Iowa later this year.
With the digital foundation of the world running through data centers and investment in Apple at an all-time high, it will be interesting to watch in 2022 if the iPhone giant makes any significant moves to expand its data center footprint.
Digital Realty
Why You Should Watch: Digital Realty is consolidating the data center market on a global basis.
Digital Realty is spending billions on acquisitions and organic growth initiatives surrounding its massive data center footprint of more than 280 facilities across 24 countries on six continents.
In January, Austin, Texas-based Digital Realty unveiled plans to become the leading colocation and interconnection provider in Africa by investing $3.5 billion to acquire a 55 percent majority stake in Africa’s largest data center provider, Teraco. In 2021, Digital Realty unveiled plans to acquire Medallion Data Centres for $29 million, one of Africa’s leading colocation and interconnection providers.
The recent move shows that Digital Realty now plans to invest a large amount on expanding its global data center reach into emerging geographies or into new key markets.
For example, in 2020, Digital Realty made one of the biggest data center purchases in history with its $8.4 billion acquisition of fellow data center giant InterXion, which had 53 facilities in 11 European counties.
It will be interesting to watch in 2022 if Digital Realty continues to consolidate the data center market with acquisitions at such a rapid pace.
Equinix
Why You Should Watch: Equinix data center innovation and partnerships are broad and vast.
Equinix is one of the largest data center and colocation providers in the world. What’s most interesting about Equinix, other than its pursuit to expand its data center footprint via acquisitions, is its constant product innovation and strong partnerships.
In December, Redwood City, Calif.-based Equinix unveiled new technologies for Equinix Metal that companies can consume as a service with the latest from AMD, Intel, Nutanix and accelerated computing from Nvidia. Equinix’s innovative custom-build xScale data center approach has also been highly successful with plans to build 32 of its hyperscale-focused xScale data centers across the globe.
On the partnership front, Equinix recently formed a partnership with Dish to provide infrastructure services in support of the U.S.’ first cloud-native, Open RAN-based 5G network. The data center giant also recently unveiled a successful collaboration with EllaLink that has created the first-ever high-capacity subsea cable system between Europe and Latin America, becoming fully operationally in November.
On the channel partner front, Equinix told CRN last year that it plans to take over 50 percent of its business through the channel.
With more than 220 data centers globally, Equinix’s innovation engine as one of the world’s largest data center colocation, interconnect and digital services providers will be something to watch in 2022.
Flexential
Why You Should Watch: As Flexential grows, channel partners are top of mind.
Although one of the smaller data center and colocation providers on CRN’s list of companies to watch in 2022, Flexential is one of the most channel-friendly data center vendors in the market.
Later this month, Flexential is launching a new partner portal that will give its solution providers greater performance and easier navigation. The new portal will offer deal registration and tracking as well give partners access to sales and marketing resources.
In late 2021, the Charlotte, N.C.-based company said it had raised $2.1 billion to build highly sustainable data centers and enter new markets. As it grows beyond its regional provider roots, Flexential has built a national footprint and global connectivity now consisting of 38 data centers and more than 3 million square feet of capacity across 19 markets.
Flexential is an important company to watch in 2022—specifically for channel partners—as the data center provider grows with its overall go-to-market strategy revolving around the channel.
Why You Should Watch: Google continues to be one of the biggest data center spenders on Earth.
Google has consistently been a top three spender on data centers on a global basis for the past several years, according to Synergy Research Group, with one of the broadest data center footprints in the world thanks to tens of billions in investments over the past several years.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s plans are big and broad as its cloud services for Google Cloud are skyrocketing. Revenue for Google Cloud jumped 45 percent year over year to $5 billion in its most recent third fiscal quarter.
Google is now laying the groundwork for future data centers in Africa by building the Equiano subsea cable, which will also connect Africa to Europe. The Equiano system is expected to initially turn on and be ready for service in the second half of 2022.
In the first half of 2021, Google, Amazon and Microsoft accounted for over half of the total amount of hyperscale data centers across the globe.
It will be interesting to see what the public cloud and search giant does in 2022 in terms of global data center expansion.
Meta (Facebook)
Why You Should Watch: Simply put, Meta’s Metaverse will need new data centers to make possible.
Although Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has been a high spender on building new data centers in recent years, the social media giant’s bullish plans to create a metaverse will likely require billions in new data center investments.
It is unclear as of now if Meta’s virtual metaverse will be a platform or an ecosystem of vendor suppliers. What is clear is that Meta will need to build new data centers, potentially smaller facilities in edge locations, in order to have enough computing and networking power to enable its metaverse.
In 2021, Facebook was one of the leading data center capacity companies in the world, according to Synergy Research Group. The company said from 2010 to 2019, Meta invested more than $16 billion data center construction and operations in the U.S. alone.
In 2022, Meta will potentially need to start laying the foundation of how its metaverse will be powered. It will be interesting to see if Meta acquires any data centers or builds new edge facilities, as well as if it forms new colocation partnerships or large leases.
Microsoft
Why You Should Watch: From Azure and Windows 11 to underwater data centers, Microsoft’s innovation and growth are sky high.
Microsoft has continued to be one of the biggest spenders on building new data centers on a global basis over the past several years to accommodate its massive Microsoft Azure growth as well as consumer technology such as VR and the new Windows 11.
Thanks to its data center capacity and footprint, the Microsoft Azure cloud business is soaring. Microsoft’s total cloud quarterly sales passed $20 billion for the first time in its history during the company’s most recent first fiscal quarter, up 36 percent year over year. Microsoft Azure, in particular, grew 50 percent year over year. The Redmond, Wash.-based worldwide software leader is now a top three leader in hyperscale data center capacity on a worldwide basis, according to Synergy Research Group.
In addition to consistently spending billions on building new data center regions for Azure, Microsoft is looking at better ways to manage data center efficiency such as on immersion cooling technology used in bitcoin mining as a promising technology for future high-density data centers, as well as underwater data centers.
In 2022 and beyond, Microsoft will be one of the most interesting data center innovators to watch.
Stack Infrastructure
Why You Should Watch: Stack Infrastructure is becoming a force in the U.S. data center market.
A small but fast-growing player in the U.S. data center market is Denver-based Stack Infrastructure with its focus on hyperscaler customers such as AWS, Microsoft and Google.
Just this month, Stack unveiled a new 216-megawatt data center campus in Northern Virginia following massive demand from its hyperscale customers. “Stack’s forward development in the most challenging markets is our differentiator,” Stack CEO Brian Cox said in a statement this month. “Our clients seek speed, scale, quality and partnership. This new flagship campus exemplifies that.”
Stack has expanded internationally since being founded in 2019, including entering the Asia-Pacific market via the opening of its Singapore regional headquarters and the construction of a data center campus in Toronto, along with a nearly completed data center in Oregon.
Stack was formed by investor IPI Data Center Partners after it combined assets acquired by T5 Data Centers and Infomart Data Centers. The company offers powered shell data centers and wholesale colocation down to private data suites.
Stack is an interesting data center company to watch in 2022 specifically around how its focus on serving hyperscalers is working and what will come next.