General	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2021
General
General	1. General Business Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (the Parent), through its controlling interest in Digital Realty Trust, L.P. (the Operating Partnership or the OP) and the subsidiaries of the OP (collectively, we, our, us or the Company), is a leading global provider of hyperscale, scale, colocation and interconnection data center solutions for customers across a variety of industry verticals ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer products. The OP, a Maryland limited partnership, is the entity through which the Parent, a Maryland corporation, conducts its business of owning, acquiring, developing and operating data centers. The Parent operates as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. Accounting Principles Our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with United States (“U.S.”) generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). All material intercompany transactions with consolidated entities have been eliminated. In the opinion of management, the unaudited interim consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments of a normal recurring nature that are necessary for a fair statement of the results for the interim periods presented. Interim results are not always indicative of results for a full year. The information included in this Form 10-Q should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and other filings with the SEC. Basis of Presentation The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements include all accounts of the Parent, the OP and the subsidiaries of the OP. The notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements have been combined. The Parent’s only material asset is its ownership of partnership interests of the OP. As a result, the Parent generally does not conduct business itself, other than acting as the sole general partner of the OP, issuing public securities from time to time and guaranteeing certain unsecured debt of the OP and certain of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The Parent has not issued any indebtedness but guarantees the unsecured debt of the OP and certain of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The OP holds substantially all the assets of the Company. The OP conducts the operations of the business and has no publicly traded equity. Except for net proceeds from public equity issuances by the Parent, which are generally contributed to the OP in exchange for partnership units, the OP generally generates the capital required by the Company’s business primarily through the OP’s operations, by the OP’s or its affiliates’ direct or indirect incurrence of indebtedness or through the issuance of partnership units. Management Estimates and Assumptions The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses. We evaluate our estimates on an ongoing basis. We base our estimates on historical experience, current market conditions, and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Examples of estimates and assumptions include: the probability of collection of lease payments from customers, the recoverability of the carrying values of investments in real estate, the fair value of share-based compensation awards, loss contingencies, the fair value of and/or potential impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, useful lives of tangible and intangible assets, and the fair value of customer relationships, buildings & improvements, and other tangible and intangible assets acquired in business combinations and asset acquisitions. Actual results and outcomes may differ from management’s estimates and assumptions due to risks and uncertainties. The Company is closely monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all aspects of its business and geographies, including how the pandemic is impacting the Company’s customers and business partners. While the Company did not incur significant disruptions during the three months ended March 31, 2021 from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to predict the impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations and cash flows due to numerous uncertainties. New Accounting Pronouncements In December 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued updated guidance for the accounting for income taxes. The updated guidance is intended to simplify the accounting for income taxes by removing several exceptions contained in existing guidance and amending other existing guidance to simplify several other income tax accounting matters. The Company adopted the updated guidance for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on the Company’s results of operations, financial position or liquidity. We determined that all other recently issued accounting pronouncements that have yet to be adopted by the Company will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements or do not apply to our operations.

General

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

1. General

Business

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (the Parent), through its controlling interest in Digital Realty Trust, L.P. (the Operating Partnership or the OP) and the subsidiaries of the OP (collectively, we, our, us or the Company), is a leading global provider of hyperscale, scale, colocation and interconnection data center solutions for customers across a variety of industry verticals ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer products. The OP, a Maryland limited partnership, is the entity through which the Parent, a Maryland corporation, conducts its business of owning, acquiring, developing and operating data centers. The Parent operates as a REIT for federal income tax purposes.

Accounting Principles

Our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with United States (“U.S.”) generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). All material intercompany transactions with consolidated entities have been eliminated. In the opinion of management, the unaudited interim consolidated financial statements reflect all adjustments of a normal recurring nature that are necessary for a fair statement of the results for the interim periods presented. Interim results are not always indicative of results for a full year. The information included in this Form 10-Q should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and other filings with the SEC.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements include all accounts of the Parent, the OP and the subsidiaries of the OP. The notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements have been combined.

The Parent’s only material asset is its ownership of partnership interests of the OP. As a result, the Parent generally does not conduct business itself, other than acting as the sole general partner of the OP, issuing public securities from time to time and guaranteeing certain unsecured debt of the OP and certain of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The Parent has not issued any indebtedness but guarantees the unsecured debt of the OP and certain of its subsidiaries and affiliates.

The OP holds substantially all the assets of the Company. The OP conducts the operations of the business and has no publicly traded equity. Except for net proceeds from public equity issuances by the Parent, which are generally contributed to the OP in exchange for partnership units, the OP generally generates the capital required by the Company’s business primarily through the OP’s operations, by the OP’s or its affiliates’ direct or indirect incurrence of indebtedness or through the issuance of partnership units.

Management Estimates and Assumptions

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses. We evaluate our estimates on an ongoing basis. We base our estimates on historical experience, current market conditions, and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Examples of estimates and assumptions include: the probability of collection of lease payments from customers, the recoverability of the carrying values of investments in real estate, the fair value of share-based compensation awards, loss contingencies, the fair value of and/or potential impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, useful lives of tangible and intangible assets, and the fair value of customer relationships, buildings & improvements, and other tangible and intangible assets acquired in business combinations and asset acquisitions. Actual results and outcomes may differ from management’s estimates and assumptions due to risks and uncertainties.

The Company is closely monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all aspects of its business and geographies, including how the pandemic is impacting the Company’s customers and business partners. While the Company did not incur significant disruptions during the three months ended March 31, 2021 from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to predict the impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations and cash flows due to numerous uncertainties.

New Accounting Pronouncements

In December 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued updated guidance for the accounting for income taxes. The updated guidance is intended to simplify the accounting for income taxes by removing several exceptions contained in existing guidance and amending other existing guidance to simplify several other income tax accounting matters. The Company adopted the updated guidance for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on the Company’s results of operations, financial position or liquidity.

We determined that all other recently issued accounting pronouncements that have yet to be adopted by the Company will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements or do not apply to our operations.