Of all data center markets around the world, Austin, Texas, added the biggest amount of retail colocation space over the past two years, according to TeleGeography, a research firm focused on the telecommunications market.

Austin owes its surge in retail-colo inventory primarily to two providers: CyrusOne and Data Foundry. Both companies have built mega data centers in the area, bringing more than 1m sq ft of floor space to the market combined.

TeleGeography analyst Jon Hjembo said that while emerging data center markets, such as Austin, have seen more rapid growth than the usual suspects like New York or San Francisco, there has been a surge in new colo space across the board.

“Both established and emerging colocation markets continue to see new data center launches as 2012 draws to a close,” he said. “Of particular note is London, which will gain 160,000 sq ft of new space by year-end as Infinity and Cable & Wireless Worldwide complete data center builds.”

Other emerging markets that have seen notable growth include Bangalore, which gained nearly 1m sq ft of new colo space since 2010, and Hong Kong, which saw a similar amount of space added, increasing its retail-colo inventory by more than 200% over two years.

Tulip was primarily responsible for driving Bangalore’s growth, having launched a massive data center there in September 2011. In Hong Kong, the main culprits were HKColo and Equinix.

In established markets, New York City stood out by having expanded its colocation capacity by more than 450,000 sq ft of floor space, or 15%, over the two years. This amount, TeleGeography noted, is more than all retail colo space in the entire Houston metropolitan area (about 370,000 sq ft).

In other major markets, Amsterdam added about 340,000 sq ft, and Tokyo’s inventory grew by 230,000 sq ft.