The “FLAP” Markets Bring in 55% of W. European Colocation Revenues; Equinix and Digital Realty are the Leaders

RENO, NV, October 18, 2022

New data from Synergy Research Group shows that the metros of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris (the so-called FLAP markets) together account for 55% of the Western European colocation market, based on retail and wholesale colocation revenues in Q2 2022. London remains by far the largest metro market, followed by Frankfurt and then, at a distance, Paris and Amsterdam. The next six metro markets are relatively much smaller and combined are no bigger than Frankfurt. Outside the top ten metros, the entire rest of region accounts for less than a third of the market. It is notable that Equinix is a very clear market leader in all four FLAP markets, with Digital Realty ranked second in three of them. Consequently those two are also the market leaders for the whole region. The next largest colocation providers in Western Europe are NTT, Telehouse, Global Switch and Deutsche Telekom. Other notable players in the FLAP markets include Data4, NorthC, STACK infrastructure, Virtus, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain, Orange and EdgeConneX. By segment Equinix, Digital Realty and Telehouse are the leaders in retail colocation while the wholesale market is led by Global Switch, NTT and Digital Realty. Over the last two years the FLAP share of the Western European colocation market has remained relatively constant at around 54-55%. While FLAP market growth generally mirrors the overall regional growth rates, among the FLAP markets Frankfurt has the highest growth rate and Amsterdam the lowest. Among the next tier of metros, Milan, Madrid, Dublin and Zurich are growing the most rapidly. Looking further afield, the colocation markets in Central and Eastern Europe remain highly underdeveloped compared with Western Europe. Russia is the only country market of notable scale, with Moscow accounting for a large part of that market.

“There has been a push to build out more edge locations around the region, but the FLAP metros remain a natural magnet for data center buildout due to their status as major economic and connectivity hubs,” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “Looking ahead, while growth of FLAP markets will remain robust, we do expect their relative share of the total market to nudge down a little, driven primarily by hyperscale operators leasing more capacity in secondary markets. They are extremely keen to deploy substantial infrastructure in additional country markets and are often doing this via leasing rather than building their own data centers. The revenue per square foot metrics may be low on many of these hyperscale deals, but the large volumes will help to move the needle a bit on geographic distribution of leasing revenues.”