How to Start a Datacenter Colocation Services Business in Dubai with Meydan Free Zone

Colocation is the landlord business of computing. You do not build the servers. You do not run the applications. You provide the concrete, the power, the cooling and the connectivity, and you rent that infrastructure to the enterprises, cloud providers and telcos that do. The UAE has become one of the fastest-growing colocation markets in the world, with 34 operational facilities, 23 more under development, and hyperscalers signing multi-megawatt pre-lease commitments before construction even begins.

GlobeNewswire via Arizton¹ projects the UAE Data Center Colocation market to reach USD 1.73 billion by 2030 at 25.33% CAGR from 2024-2030, powered by cloud expansion from Alibaba, AWS, Microsoft and Oracle alongside 5G and smart city developments, with 34 existing colocation facilities and 23 projects under active development or announced for the 2025-2030 window across retail colocation, wholesale halls and modular edge extensions. Research and Markets² reports UAE wholesale colocation retained 73% of colocation revenue in 2025 and is expected to increase to over 91% by 2031, with retail colocation revenue narrowing to 9%, as hyperscaler and enterprise preference shifts toward consolidated high-density facilities that support cloud, AI and enterprise workloads at lower unit cost. Arizton³ reports the UAE Data Center market at USD 2.38 billion in 2025, forecast to USD 6.70 billion by 2031 at 18.82% CAGR, with Khazna Data Centers offering colocation to government, telecommunications, cloud providers and large enterprises through 12 operational facilities, alongside Gulf Data Hub, Equinix, Core42, du, Moro Hub and Pure Data Centres. IMARC Group⁴ reports the UAE holds 35.2% of GCC data center revenue share in 2025, driven by Khazna's 300-plus MW pipeline, Equinix's Dubai IBX facilities and Microsoft, AWS, Oracle and Google cloud regions supported by Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 governing data privacy under a cross-border-transfer-friendly framework.

From wholesale colocation operators serving hyperscaler pre-lease demand to retail colocation providers supporting enterprise IT tenants, cross-connect and interconnection service operators enabling cloud on-ramp connectivity and edge and modular colocation operators supporting 5G and IoT deployments, a trade license lets you tap into that demand. Meydan Free Zone issues yours in under 60 minutes via Fawri, through a fully online process.

A Colocation Market on a USD 1.73 Billion Trajectory by 2030 at 25.33 Percent CAGR

A Dubai-licensed colocation operator serves a UAE Data Center Colocation market projected to reach USD 1.73 billion by 2030 at 25.33 percent CAGR, with 34 operational facilities and 23 under development, alongside wholesale colocation increasing from 73 percent to 91 percent of revenue share by 2031.

Sources: GlobeNewswire via Arizton (2025), Research and Markets (2026), Arizton (2025), IMARC Group (2025)

Who is this activity for?

• WHOLESALE COLOCATION OPERATORS: You run a wholesale colocation operator serving hyperscaler pre-lease demand, large enterprise long-term contracts and cloud provider capacity expansion. You handle multi-megawatt hall construction, redundant power provisioning, chilled-water cooling, secure customer suites and long-term wholesale contracting across Dubai and Abu Dhabi campus locations.
• RETAIL COLOCATION & INTERCONNECTION PROVIDERS: You run a retail colocation provider supporting enterprise IT tenants, mid-market clients and specialty workloads with rack-level, cage-level and suite-level provisioning. You handle cross-connect ecosystem services, cloud on-ramp connectivity to AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect and Oracle FastConnect, plus IX peering and carrier-neutral connectivity.
• EDGE, MODULAR & SPECIALTY COLOCATION: You run an edge and modular colocation operator supporting 5G rollouts, IoT deployments and low-latency AI inference workloads with prefabricated modular datacenter halls, edge sites and metropolitan-scale distributed infrastructure, or a specialised sovereign colocation operator supporting UAE government and regulated tenant sovereign data residency mandates.

6311.98 — Datacenter Colocation Services

Under this activity, you can run a datacenter colocation services business providing physical infrastructure space, power, cooling and connectivity to client organisations. Service range covers wholesale colocation, retail colocation, cross-connect and interconnection services, cloud on-ramp connectivity, IX peering, edge and modular colocation, sovereign colocation for regulated tenants and dedicated infrastructure operations for enterprise, hyperscaler and telecom clients.

This activity covers datacenter colocation services under provision of infrastructure for hosting, data processing services and related activities. Related activities within class 6311 including specialised hosting activities, complete processing of data supplied by clients, generation of specialised reports from data supplied by clients and provision of data entry services fall under separate sub-codes within the same class 6311.

In short: if you are running a wholesale colocation operator, retail colocation provider, interconnection provider or edge and modular colocation operator, this is your activity.

Third-party approval

‍No third-party approval is required.

Anti-money laundering compliance

‍This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.

Footnotes

¹ GlobeNewswire via Arizton, "UAE Data Center Colocation Supply & Demand Analysis 2025-2030", October 2025.

² Research and Markets, "UAE Data Center Market Size, Competitors & Forecast to 2031", 2026.

³ Arizton, "UAE Data Center Market Size, Investments, Growth, Trends", 2025.

⁴ IMARC Group, "GCC Data Center Market Size, Growth & Forecast 2034", 2025.