BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, 28 January, 2021 – Cloudscene, the world’s leading connectivity marketplace and market intelligence platform for buyers and sellers of network services has today released the results of its H2, 2020 Data Center Ecosystem Leaderboard. The results rank data center operators based on their ecosystem of data centers, service providers, network fabrics, and cloud on-ramps across five major regions: North America, EMEA, Asia, and Oceania, with Latin America included for the first time, this half-year.
Globally, Equinix was positioned as the leader in four out of five regions, taking out the top spot in North America, Asia, Oceania, and the inaugural Latin America rankings, with Digital Realty placed first in EMEA for the second time.
North America saw Digital Realty in second place, with CoreSite in third. Notably, DataBank entered the top 10 for this region for the first time, having recently expanded its ecosystem with the acquisition of a number of Zayo’s data centers.
In EMEA, Equinix and Lumen Technologies (formerly CenturyLink) were positioned in second and third, respectively, while in Asia, NTT Communications and SUNeVision followed the top spot, with @Tokyo making its debut into the Leaderboard, positioned eighth. Oceania’s results saw NextDC and Vocus ranked second and third.
The opening results across Latin America placed Digital Realty second, and Lumen Technologies following in third position.
“During what was a disruptive year for colocation, connectivity, and cloud, we’ve seen industry leaders hold their ground in the H2, 2020 Leaderboard, along with movement across the top ten in all regions,” said Belle Lajoie, CEO, Cloudscene.
“Latin America experienced significant demand for network services across 2020, which resulted in a spike in buyer activity on Cloudscene Marketplace. Introducing LATAM into the H2, 2020 Leaderboard rankings was therefore timely and we’re continuing to work alongside local vendors to ensure we have the most recent market data for this important region.”
Data was sourced from service providers and data center operators, and collated based on the following categories which were each assigned a weight based on relative importance for understanding data center ecosystems across the industry:
- Total data center footprint (20%)
- Service provider ecosystem (30%)
- Total network fabric presence (20%)
- Total cloud on-ramps (30%)
The H2, 2020 Data Center Ecosystem Leaderboard results are as follows:
Below, we take a deep dive into the Leaderboard rankings for each region and discuss some key points relating to the categories by which the data is organized (Total data center footprint, service provider ecosystem, total network fabric presence, and total cloud on-ramps).
Spotlight on Cloud On-Ramps
The year 2020 brought many challenges, and with it, disruption. We saw an overall increased demand on the internet with a distributed workforce becoming the new normal. From there, the cloud became critical to businesses, globally, and worldwide cloud on-ramp expansion increased.
North America made up the majority of cloud on-ramp growth, with the following change year-on-year (YoY):
- North America: +74 ↑56% (YoY);
- EMEA: +36 ↑31% (YoY);
- Asia: +20 ↑30% (YoY);
- Oceania: +11 ↑46% (YoY);
- Latin America: +5 ↑38% (YoY).
With the majority of cloud on-ramps being added in the North America region, AWS and Microsoft Azure were the Cloud Service Providers with the most growth here.
While in EMEA, it was Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud that had the greatest expansion. Asia, Oceania, and Latin America similarly saw Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud with a healthy share of the total cloud on-ramp additions.
North America Leaderboard Results
Equinix was ranked first in North America for Cloudscene’s Leaderboard H2, 2020, due to its market-leading ecosystem in the region, meaning it currently has the most expansive ecosystem of service providers, network fabrics, and cloud on-ramps in all data centers in North America.
CoreSite and Equinix data centers shared most of the cloud on-ramp expansion in 2020, with just under 50% of the market’s additions. As a region, during 2020, North America saw the highest growth rate in cloud on-ramps, with a 56% increase. The majority of cloud on-ramps added into facilities across North America were attributed to two major Cloud Service Providers: AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Latin America Leaderboard Results
In Latin America, Marcatel held the market leader position for total data centers, followed by KIO Networks, and Digital Realty.
Digital Realty was the market leader across service providers and network fabrics in its ecosystem, and Equinix took the top spot for cloud on-ramps. Latin America saw Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud as the providers adding the most cloud on-ramps in this region, in 2020.
EMEA Leaderboard Results
Digital Realty, and its subsidiary, Interxion, maintained the top spot in EMEA for a second Leaderboard in a row. The company was ranked first for data center, service provider presence, and network fabrics, and a close second in cloud on-ramps within the region’s overall data center ecosystem.
BT and Teraco Data Environments made their way into the top 10 for the H2, 2020 Leaderboard.
Digital Realty and Equinix reported a cloud on-ramp market share of two-thirds in EMEA. It was Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle that saw most of the growth, in terms of cloud on-ramps in this region, for 2020.
Asia Leaderboard Results
Equinix was ranked first in Asia for Cloudscene’s Leaderboard H1, 2020, due to its market-leading ecosystem in this region, taking the top spot for connectivity, service provider presence, network fabrics, and cloud on-ramps. Equinix was also second for operated data centers, behind NTT Communications.
Equinix had a major market share of cloud on-ramps in the region, with roughly 30% of all cloud on-ramps in Asia existing within its facilities.
With @Tokyo moving into the top 10, this half-year, Telkom Indonesia has now dropped out of the rankings.
Oceania Leaderboard Results
Equinix remained the market leader in Oceania in terms of data centers, service providers, network fabrics, and cloud on-ramps. In particular, Equinix excelled in the market share of network fabrics (50–22%) and cloud on-ramps in the region (93–38%), followed by NEXTDC (37–16% and 9–28% of Oceania, respectively). Oceania has seen the second-highest growth rate of cloud on-ramps per region in 2020, with a 46% increase.
When comparing rankings to H1, 2020, notably, Macquarie Data Centres has moved into the top 10 for H2 2020.
Cloudscene will release its next Leaderboard rankings in July 2021. Data center operators across all regions are encouraged to update their data on Cloudscene before the 20 June 2021 cut-off in order to be considered for the H1, 2021 Data Center Ecosystem Leaderboard.
Reach out to our team here if you need assistance with updating your data on Cloudscene or would like more information on Cloudscene’s Data Center Ecosystem Leaderboard.
If you’re in need of colocation and network services, visit Cloudscene Marketplace to list your requirements and receive quotes from the open market.
