The number of large data centers operated by hyperscale providers has more than doubled in the past five years, according to new data from Synergy Research Group.

A hyperscale data center is a facility owned and operated by the company it supports, including cloud services such as AWS (Amazon) and Azure (Microsoft). They offer robust, scalable applications and storage space, as well as portfolios of services, to client individuals and businesses. According to AFL Hyperscale, they usually have a minimum of 5,000 servers linked with an ultra-high-speed and high-fiber-count network.

At the end of 2020, the number of these hyperscale data centers had grown to 597, with the United States housing nearly 40 percent of the major cloud and internet data center sites. Following the United States, in order, were China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia, which together account for an additional 29 percent.

Synergy Research Group analyzed the data center footp