Feb 13 (Reuters) - Real estate investment trust Iron

Mountain on Thursday posted a rise in funds from

operations for the fourth quarter, driven by increased demand

for its data centers.

Iron Mountain leases data centers and counts cloud service

providers such as Oracle and Akamai Technologies ( AKAM )

as clients.

Despite rising political and macro economic uncertainties

businesses are spending on data centers to support ongoing cloud

migration efforts and to stay ahead in the AI race, benefiting

companies such as Iron Mountain.

The REIT's quarterly adjusted FFO, a key metric of cash

flow, grew 12% to $1.24 per share in the quarter, compared with

$1.11 a year ago.

The company posted an 8.8% increase in storage rental

revenue to $942 million.

For the full year, Iron Mountain expects revenue to be

between $6.65 billion and $6.80 billion, the midpoint of which

is slightly below analysts' average estimate of $6.77 billion,

according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company posted fourth-quarter revenue of $1.58 billion,

compared with estimates of $1.60 billion.