Lionel Sujay Vailshery
Research expert covering cloud computing and emerging tech industries
Hyperscale Computing - statistics & facts
Hyperscale data centers are the titans of the digital age, powering everything from streaming services like Netflix to scientific research at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. By networking vast numbers of servers, these behemoths can handle mind-boggling amounts of data and computing power. Importantly, hyperscalers’ architecture is designed to quickly adapt to changing demands and assign tasks to storage, processing, and network resources, typically for cloud computing. The hyperscale function exists in a unified network of data centers that is designed to be highly scalable.
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google are the leading hyperscalers
Some providers have a greater propensity to build facilities to meet computing and storage requirements, while others tend to lease space on a wholesale basis. Typically, hyperscale data centers are both owned and operated by the supporting company. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google are the leading companies in the hyperscale market, which either build their own data centers or partner with data center providers. Notably, Amazon remains well ahead of other hyperscalers, with AWS alone generating operating income of approximately 25 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Other prominent companies in the hyperscale computing market include IBM, Facebook, and Apple, as well as Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud.
Where are hyperscale data centers located?
Most hyperscale data centers reside in the United States, while the United Kingdom, China, and Germany are also popular locations. Hyperscale networks are built to grow globally, to minimize latency while serving customers regardless of physical location. This is achieved by operating in a series of regions or zones which are connected to the cloud providers’ private networks.
Global service availability is realized by increasing colocation activity, which leads to a regionalization of data center strategies to expand networks. Regionalizing data centers also coheres with a legal perspective, as the European Union, for example, requires data to stay or be processed in the location it was generated and issues fines upon violation of these regulations.
What is driving the need for hyperscale computing?
The move to the cloud is one of the biggest trends reshaping the tech industry. Data volumes are expanding exponentially and often need to be processed in real-time, depending on high levels of reliability, which hyperscale computing operators deliver. Hyperscale operators continuously increase capital expenditure to meet rising demand for their services. Further, hyperscale services can help business transformation and innovation, as each hyperscale service platform has unique capabilities that may be suited for a particular business use case. Some hyperscalers are already well enough established to offer specifically tailored solutions for certain industries. The increasing demand for these services and solutions is met by a growing number of hyperscale data centers being built worldwide, a trend likely to continue in the future.
