Many of the world’s top data center markets face issues such as rising energy costs, connectivity, and in some cases, moratoriums on new data center buildouts.
To help decision-makers navigate these challenges and prepare for the future, we’ve launched the Market Connectivity Score (MCS), a dynamic tool that measures current and potential connectivity and data center market size for 3,000 cities worldwide.
As of Q4 2024, the MCS ranks Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as the fastest-growing city for near-future connectivity infrastructure growth.
Why Kuala Lumpur?
With an Overall Future Growth Score of 46.3 out of 100, Kuala Lumpur edges out other up-and-coming cities due to its favorable ratings on planned cloud regions, data center development, and submarine cables.
Anchoring Kuala Lumpur’s status is a top score of 100 for its planned cloud regions. Currently, Alibaba has a cloud region in this market, but Microsoft, Google, and AWS are all in the process of deploying there. Kuala Lumpur gets high marks for data centers planned—behind only Frankfurt and Washington, D.C. (NoVA) and tied with Berlin.
Other metro areas with high MCS scores, indicating that they are primed for data center expansion in the near future, include Singapore, Frankfurt, Auckland, Bangkok, and Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico.
A Data-Driven Approach to Data Center Site Selection
The full Market Connectivity Score tool—available to subscribers of our Data Center Research Service—enables users to compare global data center markets based on the attributes that matter most to them, including connectivity, pricing, and power. It brings together dozens of different data sets, clustered into nine groups:
- Data Centers
- Internet Exchanges
- Pricing
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Long-Distance Transport
- Local Access
- Power
- Geography & Demographics
- Regulations & Governance
Subscribers also benefit from expert analysis of global data center market trends, such as insights into capacity, power, and pricing developments in key metro areas and major retail operators.
According to the MCS, the top ten most connected cities in the world are:
- Frankfurt, Germany | 61.9
- London, U.K. | 61.1
- Tokyo, Japan | 60.0
- Amsterdam, Netherlands | 55.1
- Singapore | 54.5
- New York, U.S. | 52.4
- Washington, D.C., U.S. | 51.9
- Paris, France | 51.3
- Hong Kong, China | 49.8
- Los Angeles, U.S. | 48.1
We update the MCS quarterly to ensure that subscribers have the most up-to-date information to make better data center business decisions.
You’ll find more information about accessing the full Market Connectivity Score—including all 43 data points for every city—over here.
