Data centers are an essential part of any business according to JLL, who are the world leader in real estate services including industrial, commercial, retail, residential and hotel real estate sectors. In the age of technology, data centers (buildings, or areas of buildings, desginated to organise, store and process data for networked computors), are showing their importance. New technologies are constantly being applied, shaping the way we live, play and work. The demands of data storage, data analysis and digital media processing are continuously increasing.
Like other types of real estate, the data center industry grows in accordance to population growth. Asia-Pacific now accounts for half of the world's population. The data industry growth can be seen in the number of internet users in the region and the number of users of social networks via mobile phones, displaying annual increases of 10% and 27% respectively.
Many businesses in the financial, health, retail and consulting sectors are no longer interested in self-managed data centers, according to Bo Bond, director of Data Center Solutions at JLL.
Data center industry has become a new trend of investment
“The application of cloud service allows businesses to save money and create more values?. The trend will continue to develop in the future.”
Data centers are an attractive investment opportunity, the reason being investors can enjoy more stable and long-term benefits thanks to the long-term lease contracts. The rental demand is less affected by the traditional property cycle.
"Data centers are the place to handle important information of users, so they need to be operated 24/7. Customers are allowed to experience the device first. Once the customer agrees to deploy a certain operation, they will rarely change. "
"There are large amounts of investments in factories where data center facilities are manufactured," Bond said. “We acknowledged a large amount of private capital flowing into this market."
However, this sector still faces many challenges. For example, the cost of building a data center is much higher than the traditional stores and office buildings.Following this, is the difference in the bylaws of cities around the world, so investors need to understand the basic principles of market, financial capacity and local regulations in the city they work.
"As an investor, it is important to understand the market and the factors that drive the market, as well as understand the characteristics of every business," Bond said.
Global revenue for the data center market is growing at an annual rate of 15.7%. The number is expected to reach US$60 billion by 2020.
According to Structure Research, the market share of the Asia-Pacific region will rise to 40% in the next two years and overtake North America to become the largest market in the world.
The growth rate of the global data storage will continue to exponentially increase, and this promises a bright future for the data center market. What you need to do now is find a way to exploit this potential.
