Denmark to become a Northern European digital hub

By Invest in Denmark | [email protected]

23 April 2018

During the last couple of years, several of the world’s large tech companies decided to acquire hyperscale data centre sites in Denmark.

This is due to a reliable high capacity power grid, availability of plenty of dark fibre, a climate excellent for cooling, opportunities to pursue cutting-edge green solutions and attractive framework conditions in general. Consequently, Denmark seems to be developing into a power hub for international data centres.

New subsea fibre cables connecting the west coast of Denmark to the US, the UK and Ireland and to the Netherlands will further enhance Denmark’s position as a Northern European digital hub.

“We focus at Denmark, because Denmark is in the process of becoming a digital hub connecting the Nordics, Central Europe, the US and the UK, not least because of the new subsea cables. Combine this with world class IT infrastructure, the world’s highest penetration rates for mobile phones, broad band and PC’s, a very reliable power grid, a top educated work force and huge investments from giants like Apple Facebook and Google,” says Jan Hoogenboom, CEO of the Dutch internet exchange service provider NL-ix to the Danish news media Ingeniøren.

Strong fibre cable connections already in place
By fourth quarter 2019, the new subsea fibre optic cable systems, Havfrue and North Sea Connect, will bring more capacity, diversity and reliability to the connectivity of Denmark and provide a direct high-capacity route to the US, the UK and Ireland. The expectation is to double the data capacity between Denmark and the US.

Furthermore, the subsea fibre cable Cobra is under construction. The Cobra is a combined power and fibre cable, which will run from Eemshaven in the Netherlands to Endrup near Esbjerg, in the western part of Denmark.

With the implementation of the new subsea fibre cable, users in the UK and Ireland and in the US will have much improved connectivity to Northern Europe and the Nordics.

Western Denmark: an attractive data centre hub
The new subsea fibre cable connections are not only enhancing Denmark’s position as an attractive location for hyperscale data centres. Especially Western Denmark will become an attractive location for colocation data centres.

In general, the number of colocation data centres is increasing as more and more companies and public institutions choose cloud-solutions for their IT workloads and applications.

Expert on data centres and Special Advisor at Invest in Denmark, Kim Schultz, elaborates on why Western Denmark is becoming an increasingly attractive location for colocation data centre investments:

"In this part of Denmark you will find the power supply required, the dark fibre as well as lots of potential low risk sites. At Invest in Denmark, we are pleased to assist any data centre operator in terms of identifying the right location and partners regarding power supply, fibre capacity, permits etc. We see a lot interest from internet exchange providers and colocation data center operators based on this and look forward to welcome these digital service providers and their customers to Denmark."