Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 37 | Page 52

COUNTRY FOCUS : NORDIC
means that businesses hosting workloads there can save € 2.5 – 3 million per MW of capacity per year , compared to colocating in Germany , for example .
Finally , Norway makes it easy to connect to other countries in Europe . For instance , a roundtrip from data centres in Norway to Frankfurt can take less than 20ms . Also , data centres in Norway don ’ t need to pay tax on their equipment , which means businesses colocating in Norway don ’ t have to pay tax costs and admin fees .
Cloud connectivity remains front of mind
While Norway ticks many of the colocation boxes , one big area that organisations need to plan for is connectivity to and from the cloud , with built-in flexibility for future plans .
For businesses considering colocating in Norway , they also need to ensure they ’ re prepared and able to connect quickly , easily and securely to cloud service providers – this requires a robust network strategy . In a study conducted in 2019 by IDC and Megaport looking at businesses in the Nordic region , it was found that only around 40 % of the organisations surveyed had defined or considered a network strategy . Simultaneously , this meant that over half of businesses using data centre space in the Nordics had yet to think about the role of connectivity in their overall digital strategy .
For these businesses , they ’ ll come to realise that connecting to cloud services via traditional point-to-point circuits can be time-consuming and cumbersome , and Internet connections don ’ t offer secure and reliable performance . When businesses consider multiple cloud vendors , matters become even more complicated . So , how can organisations marry the benefits of colocating in Norway with a flexible cloud strategy that enables them to connect to multiple clouds now and in the future ?
Leaving a digital footprint in Norway
Geiranger at Geirangerfjord , Norway
To overcome issues such as inconsistent Internet routing and ensure a hassle-free process that can combine services from various cloud providers , organisations are turning towards dedicated software-
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