The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the access to internet-related services aided by lockdowns and restrictions imposed by government agencies across the region. Therefore, the APAC data center market share has been witnessing exceptional growth. Colocation service providers witnessed a strong uptake of data center spaces by existing customers owing to the growth in demand during the pandemic.
Data center market segmentation in Asia-Pacific
Cloud service providers and video conferencing service providers have significantly contributed toward colocation and data center services. In Japan, data center operators implemented stringent precautionary regulations for the safety of their employees. Similarly, in India, a country-wide lockdown lasted for around 60 days with a majority of operations performed via online and remote mediums, which increased internet users by 25%.
Over 90% of data centers in China have adopted blade servers for the high-density computing environment. The IT infrastructure spending in Australia will be dominated by cloud-service providers, followed by enterprises, involving self-managed IT infrastructure solutions. Over 50% of the business IT budget is spent on the migration to cloud-based services in Australia, with IaaS spending leading the chart. In India, a rise in the cloud, big data, IoT, and artificial intelligence technology by enterprises is a major driver for the IT infrastructure market.
Combination of air and water-based cooling techniques
In China and Hong Kong, a majority of data centers adopt a combination of air and water-based cooling techniques to cool down facilities. However, a few facilities are built to support free cooling techniques. Although data centers in India mainly use air-based and few facilities operate using water-based cooling systems, data centers are not completely suitable for free cooling.
A majority of data centers in Singapore are designed to adopt water-based cooling techniques. The growth of the data center construction market in APAC will aid in the development of facilities that would comprise multiple chillers, cooling towers, and CRAH units with N+N redundant configuration.
In terms of general construction, China supports greenfield construction. Hong Kong is expected to witness largely brownfield developments due to the space shortage during the forecast period. A majority of the construction contractors are located in these countries.
Most data centers developed in Malaysia during the forecast period are expected to be greenfield. The market also has a strong potential for growth among modular data center projects. The labor cost in Malaysia is cheaper than in Singapore. However, the availability of a skilled workforce will be a major challenge among providers.