EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
JOSH BUIS , SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT , BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT , EMEA & APAC , VANTAGE DATA CENTERS
antage is seeing
V strong demand from customers for highquality , 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 .
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 .
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 .
Beyond Europe , in South Africa , Johannesburg is the data centre hub for Sub-Saharan Africa due to its strategic location , IT ecosystem , fibre 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
BEYOND EUROPE , IN SOUTH AFRICA , JOHANNESBURG IS THE DATA CENTRE HUB FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA DUE TO ITS STRATEGIC LOCATION , IT ECOSYSTEM , FIBRE CONNECTIVITY TO THE REST OF AFRICA AND THE AVAILABILITY OF RENEWABLE ENERGY .
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 . intelligentdatacentres . com
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