If data center investments in Latin America were viewed through a heat map, countries like Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina would stand out in intensity. According to the application Data Center Map, of the 165 data centers in Latin America, 76 are in Brazil, 15 in Mexico, 15 in Chile and 15 in Argentina.
These numbers reflect a current trend: investments in data centers are moving towards new geographies in the region, and the best example of this is Mexico. Its proximity to the U.S. market and its advanced and diversified industrial parks have made this country a highly attractive territory for investments in hyperscale data centers and colocation facilities. As an example, by April of this year the state of Querétaro alone had 15 data center projects.
The rise of Mexico on the investment map, reaching more consolidated markets as Chile, opens the possibility for new cities to start generating new investments in the industry. This is the path that Colombia seeks to follow.
Colombian Data Center market
In recent years, Colombia has sought to establish itself as a technological hub of interest for the colocation and hyperscale industry and the numbers show that they are on the right track.
According to a Arizton’s study the size of the data center market in Colombia was valued at US$380 million in 2021 and is expected to reach US$653 million by 2027, this means a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.44% in the next 5 years. Investments in hyperscale data centers, colocation and cloud services are making this development possible.
The study also shows that because of the pandemic, the country has experienced significant growth in cloud adoption in verticals such as enterprises, government agencies, and the education sector in cities like Bogotá, Barranquilla and Medellín.
Meanwhile, Arizton determined that the Colombian colocation market size is US$110 million, and that local businesses, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) institutions, and foreign firms are among the customers hosting their data in colocation data centers in Colombia, where the city of Bogota dominates the colocation services market.
The rise of hyperscale data centers
The Data Center Dynamics survey “Impact of hyperscale in Latin America”, targeting CEOs, infrastructure managers and consultants in the region, determined that after Mexico, Colombia was the second largest recipient of investments in new infrastructure or expansion of existing infrastructure in the region, comprising 18% of the projects.
According to the survey, these markets are the first to be considered by the main colocation and cloud providers in the region for their digital footprint expansion plans, because their digital economies have grown consistently for long periods. [1]
The survey also revealed that Colombia, Peru and Chile have grown above the regional average in installed capacity of new data centers and with data centers with quality certifications by the Uptime Institute. [2]
Some of the new data centers in Colombia are HostDime (with the largest data center in Latin America with an Uptime Institute Tier IV certification), Scala Data Centers, GlobeNet and Equinix, according to Arizton.
Without a doubt, Colombia is one of the most promising geographies in Latin America when it comes to technological progress. Vertiv, as a company dedicated to solving the most important challenges that data centers face, has a key role in supporting the development of the industry in this new market.
To learn more about Vertiv's portfolio of products and services for critical digital infrastructure continuity, visit vertiv.com
