Nordic Countries Increasingly Attractive as Sites for Data Centers
Posted in: Miscellaneous at 30/04/2012 20:36
At the edge of this small northern city, in a thicket of trees and hardened snow, a future hub of Facebook's global data traffic is taking shape.
Scaffolding still clings to its exterior, but soon, the structure will be packed with servers storing and transmitting the photos, status updates and friend requests of legions of users around the world.
Yet inside a portable office on the construction site, it is clear that Matz Engman, chief executive of the Lulea Business Agency, is already thinking of life beyond Facebook, the world's biggest social network, with 850 million users.
"This is just the beginning," Mr. Engman said. "What we want is to be the hub for all data traffic in Europe."
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The growing appeal of the Nordic countries was highlighted in a study released Thursday by the consulting firms Cushman & Wakefield and Hurleypalmerflatt. While Britain and Germany were ranked as the top European locations for data centers, they were closely followed by Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Norway, based on an evaluation of risk factors including energy costs, connectivity and political and environmental stability.
www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/business/global/nordic-countries-increasingly-attractive-as-sites-for-data-centers.html
