Data from 451 Research reveals that the worldwide datacenter install base grew at +0.2% Y/Y [year-over-year] in Q4 2014 to 4.3 million datacenters and IT sites. The weak demand for new facilities was primarily driven by a decline in traditional enterprise demand, particularly in mature markets, according to the research group.

This decline was offset by the booming demand for large premium and hyperscale facilities from cloud, service provider and multi-tenant datacenter vendors. While datacenters from those organizations are typically very large, from a datacenter count perspective they are still the minority, representing only 5% of the market combined when server closets and rooms are excluded. 

From a square footage perspective, enterprises continue to control the vast majority of the worldwide market, at 83%. MTDC and cloud providers control 12% and 5%, respectively. That balance will continue to shift over time as enterprises invest less in their own datacenter spaces and become more comfortable with relying on third parties, according to 451 Research.

"Investment in new datacenter space by traditional enterprises is being propped up only by the sheer force of growing organic demand for IT resources. Almost all the overarching market trends are working against the need for enterprises to build out more of their own datacenter space," says Daniel Harrington, research director, Enterprise Datacenters, 451 Research.

Other highlights from the study include:

° Developed markets such as North America and Europe declined 1% and 2% respectively. This was offset by an increase in emerging markets such as APAC, LATAM and MEA, which all grew at 2% year-over-year.

° Continued enterprise consolidation led to flat to declining growth for server closets and rooms in most regions. The same consolidation trend has led to a continued buildout of centralized premium datacenters.

° Hyperscale datacenters grew at 4%, led by strong demand from cloud and service providers (15%).