Data center leasing activity by cloud and internet giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle and others created serious supply shortages in 2016, according to an article in Data Center Knowledge. The article also lists the top 10 data center leases in the past year, which was dominated by Microsoft and Oracle. Absent from the list was Amazon Web Services (AWS), which doesn’t generally lease a typical wholesale data center product, Jim Kerrigan, managing principal at NADC and the report’s author, told Data Center Knowledge in an interview.
“Amazon did a lot of deals in 2016 but the company doesn’t lease data centers that are already fit out with electrical and mechanical infrastructure. It leases powered-base buildings – building that are connected to electrical feeds, have access to fiber-optic infrastructure and all the planning permissions in place. The company usually fits the space out with all the necessary data center infrastructure on its own.”
In related news, North America Data Centers explained that Hyperscale cloud leasing led by Microsoft and Oracle in Multi-Tenant Data Centers (MTDC) drove a 25% increase in leasing activity from 2015; a historical high. Meanwhile, Northern Virginia (Ashburn and Manassas) and Chicago dominated Multi-Tenant Data Centers (MTDC) leasing activity for 2016.
The Top 10 Data Center Leases in 2016 (by Megawatt)
- Microsoft: 35 MW with CloudHQ in Manassas, Virginia
- Microsoft: 30 MW with EdgeConneX in Elk Grove Village, Illinois
- Microsoft: 22 MW with CyrusOne in Ashburn, Virginia
- Microsoft: 16 MW with DuPont Fabros Technology in Santa Clara, California
- Microsoft: 13.5 MW with CyrusOne in Phoenix, Arizona
- Microsoft: 9 MW with CyrusOne in San Antonio, Texas
- Oracle: 6 MW with CyrusOne in Sterling, Virginia
- Salesforce: 6 MW with QTS in Dallas, Texas
- Oracle: 5 MW with CyrusOne in Ashburn, Virginia
- Oracle: 5 MW with Digital Realty Trust in Ashburn, Virginia