data centre location
example , Sweden ’ s government offers incentives to multinational businesses that are interested in setting up a data centre in the area . The Swedish government also abolished capital gains tax in 2003 and has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe . It ’ s no surprise that the area is attracting a wealth of major companies from Europe and beyond . Tech giant Amazon made Stockholm its regional headquarters for Northern Europe with its Amazon Web Services ( AWS ) cloud product , expanding on its presence in Finland . |
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Keeping costs under control |
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Scandinavia benefits from a cold climate that helps to keep facilites cool without the need for expensive equipment .’
Scandinavia benefits from a cold climate that helps to keep facilites cool without the need for expensive equipment for long periods of the year . Cooling represents a large portion of extra costs for many data centre providers so the importance of natural cooling is significant .
In addition to this , the Nordics have long been pioneers of sustainable energy . Countries have made significant advances in the field of renewable energy sources , including wave and wind power , and already boast some of the lowest energy costs in Europe .
From the start of 2017 , Sweden has implemented new legislation to lower energy tax by 97 per cent for Swedish data centre operators . Norway has proposed a similar reduction in energy taxation while Denmark produced 140 per cent of its required power and offloaded the excess to other European countries . These will result in significant cost savings for companies and will only increase the area ’ s attractiveness for major enterprise .
Connectivity is key
The Nordic countries were some of the first to adopt cloud technology and therefore the internet infrastructure in these countries was built to be cloud native . This ensures exceptionally fast and secure internet provision .
Forbes recently reported on a study by Speedtest , which found consistently high internet speeds throughout the region . Average fixed broadband download speeds were an impressive 72.05Mbps ( Megabits per second ) in Sweden , 64.53Mbps in Denmark and 52.76Mbps in Norway . The average download speed in the US is 54.97Mbps .
Scandinavia in particular has excellent data connectivity to the European mainland via cities such as Amsterdam and London . This , in turn , feeds into a network of undersea cables and other conduits that stretch as far as the USA . The Nordics are a global connectivity hub in the heart of Europe , just one part of their wide appeal .
The fact that so many international companies have set up shop in the Nordics brings additional benefits to the area . Enterprise companies often bring a digital ecosystem with them when they decide to relocate to a new area . Amazon ’ s decision to relocate its regional AWS HQ to Stockholm means that the company will ensure that conditions are optimised for the Amazon Cloud . This increases and enhances native cloud capabilities and will also result in an uptake in data usage and digital traffic as more users benefit from cloud technology .
As data usage continues to grow within the area as a result of both local and international companies , the demand for data centres and cloud services , such as colocation , will increase . Colocation services are popular , primarily because outsourcing to a third party saves on capital expenditures from lower net monitoring and maintenance costs . These managed services provide an extra layer of protection from the cloud host , are more cost effective and ensure that there are solutions in place to safeguard against potential disasters .
Over the course of 2017 , I would expect to see further adoption and consumption of cloud infrastructure and data centre solutions , as the demand for data intensive services such as live video streaming , music streaming and mobile gaming increases . With its top-down , probusiness approach , coupled with a strong workforce , supportive governments and natural cooling environment , we can expect a significant number of these services to be carried out in the Nordics . August 2017 | 39