No one can deny that 2020 will change the world on a level like most have never experienced. The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted billions of people’s daily routines, sent hospitals into override across the globe, re-written how education is delivered, and much more. But where there is disruption, there is evolution.
This time, the evolution – or call it even revolution – is truly digital. Working from home, distance learning, e-health, you name it. The world lives in online mode now, more than ever. Perhaps the pandemic only came to accelerate this by a few decades. Or perhaps we were already about to enter this massive lifestyle shift before the end of the decade.
We’ve been talking about digital revolutions for some time, but what has taken place since March has outpaced the rates of adoption seen over recent years.
For data centres, this has driven business up, with usage of public, private and hybrid cloud surging up to historical maximums. The vast number of expansion projects planned for 2020 have not stopped and capacity has increased across all continents – albeit facing some supply chain delays. Although, the world has become more understanding.
We’ve seen Equinix acquire GPX in India, Rack Centre expand in Africa with $100 million worth of CAPEX, EQT bought EdgeConnex, Digital Realty closed the $8.4 billion acquisition of Interxion, the list goes on.
If you look at the stock market as well, the US data centre REITs have all grown in value throughout 2020. That contrasts with the real estate market which has declined by 0.2%. In comparison, Equinix has seen its value rise 14.7% just from June to August.
All this to say that there are reasons to remain positive in the data centre industry as we enter a new phase of the pandemic and rapidly approach 2021.
Covid has undoubtably driven conversations across this magazine, but the common ground is the optimism for the future shared by everyone the team and I have spoken to.
I hope you enjoy this edition of Data Economy, and remember, everything will be fine.
Kind regards,
João Marques Lima
