Why Data Centres are Booming in the Nordics
The Nordics are a hub for data centres. Facebook and Apple are setting them up in Denmark and Amazon are joining them in Sweden. Never far behind, Google have bought a plot next door to Apple, so as not to feel left out. As the big names arrive, Nordic data centre colocation companies are experiencing noticeable growth. Interxion, Digiplex and Equinix are all taking advantage of the recent boom.
But why here? And what even are data centres?
An Introduction to Data Centres
Data centres are basically the engines that power all the buzzwords you hear every day. The Internet of Things, AI, blockchain and lots of others all depend on data centres to work. Data centres store all the data collected by, and necessary for, these futuristic-sounding processes and technologies to function. Think all of the data that companies and private individuals produce, through their processes, buying habits and a ton of other activities. Whether it’s collected through your phone, tablet, computer or even refrigerator, every piece of data that is sent to the mysterious ‘cloud’ actually ends up in one of these places.But it’s a lot of data.
Powerful Data needs lots of Power.
Racks, servers, cables, cooling, UPS, switch gears. All power-hungry components that are essential for building a large-scale data centre. So power hungry are they that there are environmental concerns about the energy consumption that data centres are involved in. Last year alone, data centres used far more electricity than the UK’s total consumption, which means a huge carbon footprint, and skyrocketing running costs per centre.
Which is what brings us, and data centres to the Nordics.
The Great Green North
Scandinavia is admired all over the world for it’s adoption of renewable energy. 72% of the energy in Denmark comes from renewable sources and the rest of our Nordic cousins are following suit. This means that, by powering your data centre here, you’re not making quite as much of a dent in the Ozone layer. Data centres also kick out a lot of heat. Therefore, to cut down on cooling costs it makes sense to place them somewhere cold. Enter the Nordics again.
It Just Makes Sense
With continued digitization across all industries and data centres’ energy use and proliferation forecasted to continue to grow, it’s imperative they’re in an accommodating place. Throw in the fact that Scandinavia has some of the most reliable internet connections in the world and is the easiest place in Europe to secure construction permits and do business, it seems like it’s a no-brainer.
A guest post by Mark Petersen, HVAC and Data Recruitment Consultant