Organization and Description of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization and Description of Business

Organization and Description of Business

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. through its controlling interest in Digital Realty Trust, L.P. (the Operating Partnership) and the subsidiaries of the Operating Partnership (collectively, we, our, us or the Company) is engaged in the business of owning, acquiring, developing and managing data centers. The Company is focused on providing data center, colocation and interconnection solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from financial services, cloud and information technology services, to manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer products. As of December 31, 2016, our portfolio consisted of 145 operating properties, including 14 properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, of which 104 are located throughout the United States, 32 are located in Europe, four are located in Asia, three are located in Australia and two are located in Canada.

We are diversified in major metropolitan areas where data center and technology tenants are concentrated, including the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle and Silicon Valley metropolitan areas in the United States, the Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, London and Paris metropolitan areas in Europe and the Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Osaka metropolitan areas in the Asia Pacific region. The portfolio consists of data centers, Internet gateway data centers and office and other non-data center space.

The Operating Partnership was formed on July 21, 2004 in anticipation of Digital Realty Trust, Inc.’s initial public offering (IPO) on November 3, 2004 and commenced operations on that date. As of December 31, 2016, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns a 98.5% common interest and a 100.0% preferred interest in the Operating Partnership. As sole general partner of the Operating Partnership, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has the full, exclusive and complete responsibility for the Operating Partnership’s day-to-day management and control. The limited partners of the Operating Partnership do not have rights to replace Digital Realty Trust, Inc. as the general partner nor do they have participating rights, although they do have certain protective rights.