By Michael Rareshide | Site Selection Group
The metro Phoenix area is considered one of the Top 10 Data Center Markets in the U.S. — as high as No. 6 by some measures. While the “Valley of the Sun” is not in the top 10 for population, its data center market share is a direct function of its many competitive advantages: a desirable and affordable western market for colocation, cloud, enterprise and all other data center users. Phoenix has always been a significant draw from Silicon Valley and Southern California enterprise corporations seeking competitively priced and safer alternatives to colocate their IT equipment. They see Phoenix as an excellent disaster recovery and business continuity solution. We take a look at why Phoenix should expect continued and sustained growth.
Over the past two years, Phoenix has experienced all-time highs in data center demand and colocation construction of new raised floor environments has kept up. Following a record year in 2016, Phoenix’s data center and colocation market in 2017 jumped to over 30 MWs of absorption. While not quantified, several resources are reporting that 2018 should exceed that demand. Phoenix has become a logical market for the accelerating needs of the large hyperscale cloud users, expanding enterprise customers and software-as-a service corporations. In addition, Phoenix is a desirable location as an edge data center market as major social media companies and competitors complete their geographic networks.
“We are seeing a lot of inquiries from Data Center Companies looking for good locations. Arizona has some favorable laws but the pricing of the power is still in flux.”
