In a new report by BroadGroup, China Cloud investment and data center developments are identified for the first time. Based on qualitative research and more than 100 face to face interviews, the report findings reveal a massive program that will more than double data center capacity by 2016 with an overall investment of USD370 billion.

The ‘China Cloud, Challenges and Opportunities in China’s Cloud Datacenter Deployment’ report describes the strategy to leapfrog technology dependence on foreign suppliers and generate long term economic growth for its 1.3 billion people. The Chinese government’s 12^th five-year plan has distinguished itself globally by investing significantly in creating new cloud platforms, software, and applications supported by a program of massive cloud data center deployment.

Beginning with the initial government plan for five cloud cities, the report details how this has now proliferated across at least 15 provinces with significantly funded projects. The report identifies a total of 109 projects, most of which include the construction of new cloud data centers. The North of China forms the nexus of overall project investment, with province by province plans detailed in the report. The top five provinces represent more than 88% of the total investment.

The report documents profiles of key players with SWOT analyses across the key datacenter player segments including carrier neutral, internet data centers, and the three giants China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Mobile.

Cloud cities are detailed in the report and in a regional analysis of cloud investments, include a taxonomy of the projects taking place in each location. Maps of the distribution of Cloud projects by Investment by RMB, by space (m2) and by number of projects provide additional illumination of the scale of Cloud China.

Challenges to the data center sector are immense. The success of China cloud projects will ultimately depend on business models and demand, but the report explains the many political, commercial, and technical hurdles already existing in the data center market relating to bandwidth availability, network access, and power supply.

Opportunities are certainly present in the market, but only government policy can unlock changes in investment rules and those governing foreign participation in the market. The theories that remain in circulation about what potential solutions might eventually be sanctioned are identified in the report.

Overall the report provides the first original and comprehensive assessment to date of China’s cloud strategy and data center deployment.

BroadGroup is also running an International data center event, The Datacentres Europe 2013, which takes place in Nice, 29-30 May 2013, will attract industry movers and shakers as well as enduser organizations representing vertical markets and government organizations from around the world.