** Analysts at Jefferies advise investors to be selective and stick with established Australian data centre players, such as NEXTDC NXT.AX

** Says traditional demand for cloud services remains strong, and is being supplemented by new orders from neocloud and Chinese providers

** Brokerage flags market competition may heat up, affecting prices for smaller data centre operators, given the potential new entrants

** Jefferies says new players like global firm EdgeConneX, regional players Princeton Data Group, Bridge DC and real estate developers like ISPT are looking to expand in Australia

** Believes established companies such as NEXTDC, Equinix, CDC and AirTrunk would still get the bigger chunk of major deals at attractive rates

** Backs established Australian players, given their strong track record and relationships with hyperscalers, neoclouds and grid operators

(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru)

((Rishav.Chatterjee@thomsonreuters.com))