Knight Frank has released its latest report on the Asia Pacific (APAC) region’s data centre industry, across the first quarter of 2022, revealing fresh market insights on growth trends within APAC.
According to the report, there was an increase of 488 MW of data centre capacity across APAC within the first quarter of 2022 alone. Notably, this increase in capacity was more than double the increase within the fourth quarter of 2021, indicating strong demand for data centre services within the region.
Knight Frank found that although Singapore has been a significant outbound investor in data centres beyond APAC, there has been poor growth in Singapore’s data centre market, which may be attributed to the data centre moratorium.
Nonetheless, as a whole data centre growth in the APAC market exceeded data centre growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The report also highlighted that data centre growth was mostly driven by Tokyo, Sydney, and Seoul, with Sydney achieving an important milestone in becoming a gigawatt market.
Strong Data Centre Growth in APAC
Knight Frank highlighted that first quarter growth (between January to March 2022) of the data centre market in APAC were mostly driven by Tokyo, followed by Sydney and Seoul. The report noted that “across the region, 203 MW of capacity was absorbed this quarter largely due to public cloud activity, a number significantly higher than the average 127 MW per quarter as previously observed in 2021.”
Furthermore, the report affirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rate of growth for the data centre market in APAC. Knight Frank’s data centre lead for APAC, Adeline Liew, observed that “while a new wave of Covid-19 infections may have hampered data center development in Greater China markets this past quarter, overall, the pandemic has actually been a boon to data center demand in Asia Pacific, as it has led to a tremendous increase in both appetites for the cloud due to the shift to hybrid work as well as an increase in overall internet penetration.”
Ben Stirk, Knight Frank’s global data centre co-head, also affirmed that the APAC region would continue to witness strong growth in the data centre industry.
“The fundamentals support this trajectory, with Asia being the most populous continent and a region where digital transformation is accelerating at pace. There is tremendous hyperscale growth potential underpinned by domestic demand. This, combined with the continued reopening of economies and the loosening of restrictive regulation means further growth can be expected moving forward.”
Across the region, sustainable digital transformation has been a priority for many companies and enterprises. “Outstanding Data Center Projects” is an awards category for this year’s W.Media Asia-Pacific Cloud & Datacenter Awards. Thinking of nominating or sponsoring? Visit our Awards Page for more information. Nominations are open until 31st July.
