Southern California data center activity increased in the first half of the year, with Downtown Los Angeles leading the region, according to new research from CBRE. Southern California data center activity totaled 5.2 megawatts in the first half of the year. Technology, healthcare and entertainment companies. The Southern California region is following the national trend in data center growth. In general data center activity is up across the country with 177 megawatts of total activity in the first half of the year, and is set to break 2017 records.

“Recent absorption in Southern California can almost entirely be attributed to a global cloud provider that expanded into the region,” Kristina Metzger, first VP at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. “The other transactions of note consisted primarily of existing end-users expanding and select local enterprises moving out of their current office environments into third-party, outsourced models, predominantly colocation.”

While data center activity is growing across the country, the Los Angeles market is among the leaders. “The Los Angeles Multi-Tenant Data Center market will remain among the top 10 markets in the United States,” adds Metzger. “We expect demand and absorption to return to historic averages in the 3% growth range as operators continue to expand their existing customers and select, small local enterprises move to outsourcing models.”