Facebook looks to Denmark for European data centre expansion
Mon 3 Oct 2016
Facebook is reported to be planning a new 184,000 sq.m data centre in Denmark – its third outside of the United States. According to a report [Danish] from local news site Fyens Stiftstidende (fyens.dk), the social media giant is looking into constructing a huge facility with three server halls near to the Danish city of Odense.
Fyens.dk reported that the construction of the data centre, led by British company Mace, could create up to 1,200 jobs. The site, located within the local industrial area of Tietgenbyen, measures around 500,000 sq.m and was recently purchased by Cassin Networks Aps for 68 million Danish krone (approx. £8 million) – with payment made to the municipality of Odense.
According to the Danish report, a fence was recently erected around the perimeter of the construction site and the land is currently being monitored by security.
While Facebook has not revealed any detail on the Odense site, it has admitted its interest in the location.
‘We have not made any final decision to come to Denmark. It takes years to prepare an area for a new data centre, and because of this long wait we’re always evaluating potential new locations when expanding our global infrastructure. By thinking ahead, we can act quickly when we need additional capacity. But we have not committed ourselves to anything yet,’ said [Danish] Peter Münster, head of communications at Facebook Nordics.
Fyens.dk noted that the new Odense facility would be even larger than Facebook’s ‘frozen’ data centre in Luleå, Sweden, which opened in 2013. The social network is also in the midst of constructing a further European data centre location in Ireland for an estimated $220 million (approx. (£170 million).
Facebook is not the only U.S. tech company interested in Denmark as a data centre location. Last year, Apple announced that it would be taking advantage of the country’s cooler climate with a new facility in Viborg, intended to store data for European customers of Apple services such as Maps, Siri, iTunes and iMessage.
