COVID-19 has pivoted the way we do business today. Data centers have helped transformed digital commerce and online businesses giving digital infrastructure a vital role in business operation and growth. What are data centers? A data center is a centralized facility that houses storage systems, routers, servers, security devices, and electrical switches where data can be accessed virtually thru applications and websites. As money is deposited in a bank, data is stored in a data center. Data centers are not only repositories but also the ones that process, back up, and recover a large amount of data.
What's the best type of data center for your use? The most common data centers are colocation, cloud, and hyperscale. Colocation data centers provide physical space, power, and cooling systems for servers and connections to local communication networks. Some of the most reliable colocation data center companies are QTS Realty Trust Inc (NYSE: QTS), Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), and Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX). Cloud data center, on the other hand, is a host of different companies in one facility such as IBM Cloud (NYSE: IBM). Go ahead and check our previous article about the 15 biggest cloud computing companies in the world. On the contrary, a hyperscale data center is a facility that is run by the company that it supports. The e-commerce giant Amazon has Amazon Web Services. Other most popular data center giants are Microsoft and Google to name a few. Green data centers are gaining popularity as well for promoting sustainability for maximizing energy efficiency while minimizing the environmental effects of a traditional data center. Some of the green data centers you may know are Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) wherein they were able to reduce the number of backup generators because of locally generated hydroelectricity on their site in Lulea, Sweden. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) on the other hand utilizes solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal resources to support their cloud services and operations. According to a recent study of Technavio, the hyperscale market alone expects a compound annual growth rate of 21% from 2020 to 2024 even with the impact of COVID-19. The construction of green data centers in North America accounts for the positive growth rate during the forecasted period.
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The data center industry is booming with the increasing popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT), 5g network, and industry 4.0. Digital commerce stores and business owners are relying on the largest data center companies in the world as they provide big data analytics that enhances efficiency, security, and productivity of daily operations. The global data center market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 2% from 2019 to 2025. According to a recent report from Research and Markets, in the U.S. market alone, the data center industry is expected to reach over $69 billion in revenues by 2024. This is due to the most prominent investment in colocation and hyperscale data centers wherein the use of cloud computing services and applications continues to improve rapidly in the U.S.
Today, data centers are improved efficiently to support the growing demand as new applications for technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine advancement continues to grow, so do the needs for a more advanced facility, storage, and equipment that can transmit and process data. This is where the cloud partner ecosystem such as Google Cloud comes in where large data centers are interconnected and collaboratively support each other to create a larger-scale data center.
How did we come up with the largest data center companies in the world? We scaled data center companies with their reported annual revenues and the number of their employees listed on RocketReach. We also included the number of facilities each data center companies own globally. Ready to look at a list of investment-worthy data center companies?
Let's take a look at the 15 largest data center companies in the world, starting with number 15:
15. 365 Data Centers
Revenue: $11.4 Million
Number of Employees: 81
Number of Data Centers: 17
Headquarter: Norwalk, Connecticut
365 Data Centers provides hybrid data center solutions in 13 markets in the U.S. The strong, carrier-neutral ecosystem and secure, efficient edge colocation, network, IP, DRaaS, BaaS, cloud computing and storage, and data security services of 365 help businesses minimize costs, drive innovation, and enhance their customer experience. The Company operates a total of 230,247 square feet of data center space with data centers in Boca Raton, Bridgewater, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Indianapolis, Long Island, Nashville, Philadelphia, New York City, and Tampa that act as regional hubs for networks.
NTT is a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of the world's largest providers of telecommunications services, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. NTT Communications offers a wide range of advanced global ICT solutions, including cloud, network, and security services to help customers work quickly, improve their productivity, reach new markets, and grow new companies.
QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (QTS) is a provider of hybrid cloud and fully managed services for efficient data solutions covering more than 7 million square feet of QTS Mega Data Centers across North America and Europe. Moreover, QTS has an integrated network in which its data centers are managed and operated and offers a variety of infrastructure solutions for information technology (IT). What's unique about QTS Realty Trust is that they are adopting a three-pronged sustainability strategy, the company is committed to minimizing the carbon footprint of the data center and using as much renewable fuel as possible.
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One of the best players in the colocation market and one of the largest data center companies in the world is CoreSite. The company offers stable, reliable high-performance data center and interconnection solutions. CoreSite owns 24 operating data centers across 8 major communication markets in the U.S. has a portfolio totaling more than 4.6 million square feet of data center space.
Interxion is a European data center provider that delivers services through 28 data centers in 11 countries located in major metropolitan areas, including London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, and Madrid. The carrier-neutral colocation services of the company allow clients to reduce operating and capital costs while improving the efficiency and versatility of the application.
CyrusOne’s portfolio currently comprises more than than 40 enterprise-class facilities spanning three continents, with more than 4 million square feet of gross net rentable square footage. It provides IT services, managed hosting, colocation, and managed data centers. The company also offers consultancy services for IT infrastructure, including network architecture and performance, network security, and fault and performance management services.
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9. Cyxtera Technologies
Revenue: $1.1 Billion
Number of Employees: 1,400
Number of Data Centers: 62
Headquarter: Coral Gables, Florida
With a range of new, cloud- and hybrid-ready security and analytics solutions, Cyxtera Technologies integrates a global network with best-in-class data centers, supplying more than 3,500 businesses with an integrated data center solution and federal government agencies in the United States. Cyxtera provides data center colocation, enterprise bare metal, and interconnectivity services to 62 data centers across the world, 29 markets, and 600 networks.
Digital Realty serves customers around the world's network infrastructure, collocation, and interconnection strategies ranging from cloud and IT services, communications, and social networking, to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer goods. With 280 facilities in 47 meters across 22 countries on 6 continents, Digital Realty's global data center footprint offers consumers access to the connected communities.
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a multinational organization that stores, preserves, and maintains data and assets. The company offers hyper-scale ready colocation services with over 3.5 million square feet in 15 data centers in five countries. Iron Mountain colocation facilities are sustainable and provide convenient access to the carriers, cloud providers, exchanges, and IT services required for digital transformation.
Equinix, Inc. unites the world’s leading companies to their consumers, employees, and partners inside the most interconnected data centers. Equinix proudly introduces itself as "the world's digital infrastructure company". Equinix operates data centers in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Washington D.C.
