CBRE predicts 2021 will be record-breaking year for European colocation demand

Demand for carrier-neutral colocation capability throughout Europe will hit file highs in 2021, and will stay elevated into 2022 and 2023, predicts actual property consultancy CBRE.

The hyperscale cloud and web giants will be the primary drivers of this demand over the following three years, significantly the place the take-up of wholesale colocation capability is anxious, mentioned CBRE.

The onset of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has led to a well-documented surge in demand for enterprise and client cloud and web providers in response to governments internationally issuing stay-at-home mandates 

This has led to an uptick in demand for wholesale colocation among the many hyperscale group, who now account for 80% of the demand for datacentre capability throughout Europe.

CBRE’s information additionally suggests the retail colocation market is cashing-in on these traits too, as enterprises look to outsource their datacentre necessities to the colocation group and remodel their IT environments in response to the pandemic.

However, assembly this demand has not been with out its challenges through the pandemic, as operators have struggled with provide chain points, which have had a knock-on impression on the tempo of datacentre buildouts in sure markets.

To this level, CBRE mentioned the quantity of recent colocation capability (173MW) that got here on-line throughout 2020 in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris (Flap) was decrease than the 234MW the corporate predicted in the beginning of final year. Take-up, nonetheless, was up barely on CBRE’s pre-Covid predictions. The firm initially predicted in the beginning of 2020 that take-up would hit 197MW final year, but it surely topped 201MW in the long run.

The firm predicts the FLAP market will see greater than 415MW of recent provide added over the course of 2021. This is nearly 100MW greater than in 2019, which is famous as being a record-breaking year for colocation provide.

Furthermore, CBRE forecasts that greater than 370MW of take-up will happen throughout the FLAP market, of which 230MW has already been pre-let by shoppers within the enterprise and hyperscale markets.

“The market signed 440MW of recent contracts in 2020 – greater than half of those will be realised in future years,” mentioned CBRE, in an announcement.

Penny Madsen-Jones, director of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) datacentre analysis at CBRE, mentioned the excessive quantities of pre-let colocation capability throughout the FLAP market are indicative of how the pandemic has given enterprises and hyperscalers pause for considered their future plans.

“It is exceptional that the datacentre market, which has confronted provide challenges, has been in a position to meet continued excessive demand,” she mentioned.

“Constraints have finally led extra prospects – specifically hyperscale prospects – to rigorously take into account their datacentre wants for the years forward, and this has led to excessive pre-let exercise. This supplies CBRE with wonderful perception into take-up for the years forward.”

Cloud availability zones

She continued: “Much of the pre-let exercise we’ve seen has been centered round present cloud availability zones. We will see much more such exercise because the build-to-suit market (which builds particularly to hyperscale specs) grows.”

CBRE’s predictions coincide with the publication of its fourth quarter colocation market tracker report, which screens the availability and take-up traits of datacentre capability throughout the FLAP markets. Its information exhibits that 95MW of recent colocation provide got here on-line throughout This fall, and 70MW of take-up occurred, with nearly all of this exercise occurring within the London and Frankfurt markets.

Such is the demand for colocation capability in established markets like Frankfurt, CBRE additionally used the report back to signpost Berlin as a attainable overflow website for operators to construct new datacentres in.

“With Frankfurt’s provide remaining in excessive demand, and the market experiencing land and energy constraints, hyperscalers have turned their consideration to the town in Germany’s north east. Berlin is now being positioned as a location for new availability zones,” the CBRE report acknowledged.

“The metropolis is completely positioned geographically for cloud suppliers. Being 200km from Frankfurt means it’s far sufficient away to supply a German different to Frankfurt when it comes to availability zones. The market additionally provides entry to Eastern Europe and is already an necessary connectivity hub.”

Even so, Madsen-Jones mentioned it’s anticipated that the prevailing hubs will proceed to see excessive demand for colocation capability for some years to come back, regardless of the prospect of recent second-tier hubs rising.

“Many markets, nonetheless, will proceed to expertise challenges website entry and energy in the place cloud availability zones exist, and we anticipate, consequently, to see new availability zones fashioned throughout present markets in coming years, resulting in continued excessive demand,” she mentioned.

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