Equinix, Digital Realty take charge of colocation market, says research firm

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) and Digital Realty, according to Synergy Research Group's Q2 report, may be the market share leaders in the colocation market, but they face a viable competitive threat in NTT which has colocation facilities in 21 countries.

In recent years, Equinix has been expanding its presence internationally, including Asia Pacific, Brazil, and Europe via the acquisitions of Asia Tone, ALOG, and ancotel, and its own investments in new data centers.

On a single country basis, DuPont Fabros, which was ranked 12th by quarterly revenues, was the market leader.

John Dinsdale, managing director for Synergy Research, said that geographic reach has become an important differentiator for colocation providers.

"As the boom in cloud infrastructure services continues the mix of colocation business will continue to tilt in favor of globally oriented service provider customers and away from the enterprise, further favoring large-scale multi-national operators," he said. "It is no coincidence that both Equinix and Digital Realty continue to gain market share despite the plethora of competitors in the market."

Overall, the colocation market segment is a lucrative one, rising 9 percent to $5.2 billion in the second quarter. Out of that mix, retail and wholesale operations accounted for 78 and 22 percent, respectively. Interestingly, wholesale growth outpaced retail growth during the quarter. While North America accounted for 44 of worldwide colocation revenues, it was also the region with the lowest growth rate.

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