Amsterdam Is Back in the Data Center Business

Oct 23, 2020 |

Amsterdam Is Back in the Data Center Business

Originally posted on Data Centre Dynamics

by Oliver Menzel, CEO, Maincubes

As the data center moratorium ends, Amsterdam is ready to balance data and urban life

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area’s (AMA’s) moratorium on building new data centers in the city of Amsterdam, imposed in 2019, is finally over. With the possibility of new facilities on the horizon, what does the digital future look like for “The Venice of the North”? These regional decisions and developments may offer a glimpse into a range of issues affecting cities everywhere in the digital age.

Data center investment is poised to ramp up

Data center businesses want to accelerate investment again now that the moratorium has ended. This makes sense because demand for connectivity, compute and storage is growing briskly in Amsterdam — and the wider region. The city is a natural site for large-scale data centers due to its location at the crossroads of the major European Internet connections.

AMS-IX, as part of Amsterdam’s Science Park, is one of the world’s largest internet exchanges. Amsterdam is also a prime landing spot for undersea and fiber optic cables from North America. Alongside Frankfurt, London and Paris, Amsterdam has been a part of the “location quartet” of hubs for decades, serving as one of Europe’s network ecosystem leaders.

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