Digital Realty

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that provides the foundational infrastructure for the digital economy through its extensive portfolio of data centers. The company was formed in 2004 by the private equity firm GI Partners, which aggregated an initial portfolio of 21 data centers acquired from distressed companies. This strategic assembly allowed the company to go public on November 4, 2004, with 23 properties. A. William Stein, who was instrumental in taking the company public while at GI Partners, served as CFO and CIO before becoming CEO from 2014 to 2022. The current CEO, Andrew (Andy) Power, has a long history with the company, having been part of the underwriting team for its 2004 IPO while at Citigroup and later serving as its CFO and President before his appointment to CEO.

The company's business model centers on leasing its data center facilities to a diverse and stable customer base of over 5,000 clients. These clients span various industries, including cloud and IT services, financial services, telecommunications, digital media, and healthcare. Revenue is primarily generated through long-term leases for its data center spaces, with contracts often lasting 5 to 15 years, providing stable and predictable income streams. Digital Realty offers a spectrum of data center solutions, from wholesale leasing of large, dedicated spaces to hyperscale cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, to retail colocation where enterprises can rent a single cabinet. A growing and high-margin revenue stream comes from interconnection services, which allow customers to establish direct, private connections to each other and to cloud and network providers within the data center ecosystem.

Digital Realty's core offering is its global data center platform, PlatformDIGITAL®, which provides a secure and connected environment for companies to scale their digital business and manage data gravity challenges. The company operates more than 300 facilities across over 50 metropolitan areas in more than 25 countries, totaling over 41 million rentable square feet. Its services range from build-to-suit options and powered shell buildings to fully equipped colocation and interconnection solutions. This global footprint has been significantly expanded through strategic acquisitions, including Telx in 2015 for $1.886 billion, DuPont Fabros Technology in 2017, Ascenty in 2018 for $1.8 billion, and a transformative $8.4 billion acquisition of European provider Interxion in 2019. The company actively invests in its sustainability initiatives, aiming to reduce its carbon footprint through the use of renewable energy and green building standards. As of 2024, 185 of its data centers were matched with 100% renewable energy, and the company has issued over $7.2 billion in green bonds to fund sustainable projects.