Northern Virginia: Synergy Group names Northern Virginia, Beijing, and Dublin as top 3 hyperscale locations

A report from Synergy Research Group found that just twenty state or metro markets account for 62 percent of the world’s current hyperscale data center capacity. Northern Virginia tops this list while the Greater Beijing Area takes the second place, with both making up 22 percent of global hyperscale capacity. 
 

They are followed by Dublin in Ireland, Oregon, and Iowa in the US. In fifth place is Shanghai. Of the top 20 markets, 13 are in the US, four in the APAC region, and three in Europe. 
 

John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy, explained that a range of factors influence a hyperscaler’s choice of location. These include: “proximity to customers, availability and cost of real estate, availability and cost of power, networking infrastructure, ease of doing business, local financial incentives, political stability, and minimizing the impact of natural hazards.”

He added: “When you weigh up those factors it tends to mitigate against some of the world’s biggest economic hubs, like London and New York, while favoring some sparsely populated US states like Oregon, Iowa, and Nebraska. While the general location decision criteria will remain the same over the coming years, the mix of top markets will change driven mainly by high growth in emerging markets such as parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.”