Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 74 | Page 33

EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
JOSH BUIS – SVP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
EMEA & APAC

Vantage is seeing strong demand from customers for high-quality , hyperscale data centre facilities across the globe . Predicting one region ’ s popularity over another can be dynamic .

The European data centre map is expanding rapidly , providing cloud provider companies with more opportunity to bring their services closer to their customers , enabling them to provide better services and satisfy local data privacy regulations . At the same time , they can grow commensurate with increased demand . With more third-party data centre availability and choice , companies in need of data centre space can also be relieved of the burden of CAPEX and the time required in attempting new builds , not to mention finding skilled engineering and construction personnel in each market , leaving this in the hands of the operators .
The pandemic has also added to the urgency for European cloud providers to expand beyond the traditional FLAP markets and regionalise their data centre strategies . Rising demand for content , streaming and collaborative services is driving the need for data centres to be located closer to customers to reduce latency .
Asia Pacific is another high-growth region , including Hong Kong , Japan , Malaysia and Australia .
Central and Eastern European governments are accelerating the Digital Transformation of their countries , bringing more demand for colocation and cloud hosting data centre providers . In turn , providers are taking advantages of available land , competitively priced power and rich connectivity . Poland is taking the lead as the digital hub between Western and Eastern Europe .
Switzerland has recently experienced a notable number of new hyperscale additions . The country has distinguished itself from its neighbours by its political and regulatory environment , along with its high bandwidth and central location in Europe . Privacy laws that require data to stay within the geographical boundaries of a country are also contributing to the growing need for data centres in Tier II markets .
Beyond Europe , in South Africa , Johannesburg is the data centre hub for sub-Saharan Africa due to its strategic location , IT ecosystem , fiber connectivity to the rest of Africa and the availability of renewable energy . As the industry continues to grow , there will be a greater need for large-scale data centres in strategic locations across Africa .
Asia Pacific is another high-growth region , including Hong Kong , Japan , Malaysia and Australia . Canada also remains one of the most in-demand geographic locations for hyperscale companies with a plethora of connectivity options and abundant , clean sustainable energy . Montreal , for example , is ideally located for hyperscalers looking to deliver service to customers in large east coast cities in both the US and Canada with limited latency .
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST 33