Ten Most Connected Data Centers

Data centers are perennially difficult to rank, due mostly to the fact that different data center users place different amounts of value on each server farm characteristic. Electrical and mechanical infrastructure redundancy may be more valuable to a bank than to a cloud startup, for example, while a big cloud provider may emphasize the site’s capacity for expansion.

The one characteristic that’s emerged as paramount in recent years is data center connectivity. More precisely, the variety of connectivity options available at a site. As companies increasingly have to deliver digital services at global scale, having access to as many network providers as possible that will help them do that is more important than ever.

Data center connectivity is one of the ways a new online directory, launched by the Australian internet entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, ranks the world’s data centers. Slattery’s company Megaport, whose software platform automates the process of connecting to various service providers in a data center, went public in Australia last December. He co-founded a telco called Pipe Networks and founded NextDC, one of Australia’s biggest data center providers, which went public in 2010.

His new company, called Cloudscene, wants to bring clarity to the convoluted data center market by creating a directory of some 4,700 data centers and 4,200 cloud and internet service providers across 110 countries. In a statement, Slattery said he was frustrated with “the traditionally long and difficult buying process for data centers and enterprise cloud services.”

“Prospective tenants or home buyers haven't needed to visit individual websites of real estate agents to get listing information for over a decade,” he said. “So, why is the tech industry stuck in the past when it comes to enterprise IT services?”

There is at least one other website that aims to be a comprehensive listing of the world’s data centers (http://www.datacentermap.com/), but it doesn’t rank sites by data center connectivity, service providers, network fabrics, and markets the way Cloudscene does.

Here are the top 10 most connected data centers, according to Cloudscene:

1. SG1

Operator: Equinix
Location: Singapore
Number of service providers: 312

2. LA1

Operator: CoreSite
Location: Los Angeles (One Wilshire)
Number of service providers: 259

3. FR5

Operator: Equinix
Location: Frankfurt
Number of service providers: 246

4. Denver

Operator: 910Telecom
Location: Denver
Number of service providers: 203

5. Telehouse North

Operator: Telehouse (subsidiary of KDDI)
Location: London
Number of service providers: 197

6. SY3

Operator: Equinix
Location: Sydney
Number of service providers: 187

7. SY1

Operator: Equinix
Location: Sydney
Number of service providers: 184

8. Paris Voltaire

Operator: Telehouse
Location: Paris
Number of service providers: 155

9. DC2

Operator: Equinix
Location: Ashburn
Number of service providers: 155

10. HK1

Operator: Equinix
Location: Hong Kong
Number of service providers: 151

All images taken from websites of the data center providers on this list.

Disclaimer: this ranking does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Data Center Knowledge or its parent company Penton.