We use the internet and its associating services everyday without even thinking about it. But behind the scenes is a massive and complicated network of data centres that distribute and store our data.
So to dive deeper into these widely unknown data centres, here are the biggest data centres in Europe that you’ve most probably never heard of.
This list is also arranged by the largest down. Lets begin!
Top 10 Biggest Data Centers in Europe
1: Altice Portugal (Previously known as Portugal Telecom) Covilha Data Center
Size: 800,000 Square Feet.
As the largest telecommunications provider in Portugal, this company shifted from being Portugal Telecom to Altice Portugal in 2015. This particular location in Covilha is the largest data center in Europe.
It was strategically placed in this area, as it is the coolest point in the country, allowing for an environmentally friendly mode of operation. The center has a rainwater collection system, a solar power generator, and an on-site garden of more than 600 trees.
This is the company’s 8th data center, and focuses on architecture, environmental functioning, and technology advancements. The data center utilises free cooling 99% of the time, with some adiabatic cooling when needed. This allows it to have a very low Power Usage Effectiveness score of 1.25.
With 12 generators of 1,875kVA power in each, two 21,200 gallon tanks of diesel and an IT room supply of 2.2kW per square meter, the extensive system of operations here reveals why this location is a vast undertaking for this company to be number one in the list of the biggest data centers in Europe.
The cloud services of the data center offer end-to-end services with security, storage and connectivity options through the SmartCloud portfolio.
Check out the official site of Altice Portugal here.
2: Next Generation Data Center
Size: 750,000 Square Feet.
Second on the list of the biggest data centers in Europe is the Newport, Wales location of ‘Next Generation Data’ (NGD), which overs a 50-acre campus space.
Services are offered to companies that need web-scale cloud technology, data hall storage, or colocation. This location is known as a tier 3+ data center, and it houses some big companies, such as BT, IBM, and other global providers.
The modular construction means more safety for the storage and usage of private and secure data. The location-neutral connectivity costs allow customers to enjoy, no matter the location, as many different services providers in the United Kingdom deliver the fiber to many locations.
There are different options for connectivity, with interconnected services and a Cloud Gateway featuring direct connect services to companies such as Microsoft ExpressRoute and Microsoft Azure, and many more.
There’s a private connection to the Super Grid with on-site substations with a future capacity leading to 180MW. The building, which is made of three-story, has availability to store up to 375,000 square feet of technical space, with additional capacity for 19,000 cabinets.
See their official website for more information about this impressively large data center.
3: Microsoft’s Dublin Data Center
Size: 550,000 Square Feet
The campus of the Microsoft Dublin Data Center is in Leopardstown, Dublin, Ireland. It takes up a total of 7.4 acres. The center boasts the use of an aisle server pod design along with free cooling outside air to create energy usage efficiency with a smaller energy footprint, even due to its large size.
The Power Usage Effectiveness score (known in the data-world as PUE) is operating at 1.25 for this center, which is lower than the average of 2.0 for most centers in the industry, and about 1.6 for the average PUE for Microsoft’s other facilities.
This center is the powerhouse for most of Microsoft’s global cloud computing system. For more information about the company itself, as well some highlights about this third location in the biggest data centers in Europe, visit their website.
4: Equinix LD5 Data Center
Size: 226,000 Square Feet
This data center, located in London in the Slough Trading Estate, is the largest of this European-wide company’s data centers. To combine all data centers of this company together, there would be almost 1 million square feet of space taken up by these establishments.
The LD5 center houses more than 40 carriers that can all connect to central London through efficient fibers. For more information about this particular center, see here.
The Equinox company has made the list in the biggest data centers in Europe, and has a comprehensive offering of many more centers, as it has been operating since 1999. It currently services 200 data centers across 22 different countries.
Some of these countries include Bulgaria, France, Finland, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. This company offers services including Network Virtualisation, Secure Key Management, Consulting, Marketplace, Managed Services, and Customer Support.
Below are some of the main European centers of Equinox:
- Munich, Germany: 137,653 square feet.
- Frankfurt, Germany: 135,625 square feet.
- Paris, France: 118,493 square feet.
- Amsterdam, Netherlands: 96,981 square feet.
See their website for information about each data center, as well as their company profile.
5: DEAC Moscow Data Center
Size: 179,800 Square Feet
With one of the largest telecommunications platforms available for Russia, this data center in Moscow is designed according to Tier III in data functionality.
The center offers customers multilingual support, 24/7 system management operations and the development of individualised services. The company guarantees uninterrupted power supply with the system running on two independent power lines, as well as generators, and even back up batteries to secure the continuous power supply.
Each server room in the center is equipped with humidity and temperature measuring devices to ensure safety for the quality of the data technology. There is also back up technology for critical business processes, remote access applications, and risk diversification.
For additional information about the services and functions of this data center, see the official website of DEAC and the Moscow location here.
6: Iron Mountain Amsterdam AMS-1 Data Center
Size: 108,000 Square Feet.
Sixth on the list of the biggest data centers in Europe is the Amsterdam AMS-1 data center, owned by Iron Mountain. Colocation services are the biggest offerings in the Amsterdam data center, and they include comprehensive compliance support, federal-grade security systems and streamline digital hybrid IT.
Remote management is very efficient with the Iron Mountain Amsterdam data center, as well as cloud access, telecom, and links to many service providers. Top European market multinational corporations access this data network.
The center has the ability to accommodate wholesale requirements of hyper-scale cloud providers, global enterprise and government organisation with total power offering of 15.0 Megawatts.
The choices for storing data in this center range from cages, suites, cabinets, MOS’d and wholesale functionality. Interestingly, this data center was first built and run by EvoSwitch, and Iron Mountain later acquired the data center in 2018.
For more information about the company, and the other data center locations in Europe, as well as this Amsterdam center, check out their website.
7: Telehouse London Docklands Data Center
Size: 86,100 Square Feet
There are in total five data centers of Telehouse in London, with four centers at this Docklands East London area, including Telehouse North (opened 1990), Telehouse East (opened 1999), Telehouse West (2010) and TelehouseNorth Two (2016). There is another center apart from this location, Telehouse Metro (opened 1997), in the city of London.
Telehouse London Data Centers are known for their high traffic and market share of carriers, with these Dockland data locations facilitating most of London’s Internet Exchange (LINX’s) capacity. Most of the Global Internet Traffic of London flows through these data funnels in these centers, which is why Telehouse makes the list of the 10 biggest data centers in Europe.
Telehouse is also well known for their connectivity operations, with opportunities for carriers vast with over 530 carriers able to be connected through Telehouse London centers. There is ISP and ASP interconnected ability via dark fiber functionality. The close proximity of this location to the London City and Canary Wharf makes for efficient trading exchanges and mission-critical applications of use.
Telehouse is actually the only UK company that operates a dual primary substation on-site, that is connected at 132kV to supplier lines. This substation, at the London Docklands location, has a total capacity of 50MVA, with additional cooling capacity. It contains two power lines connected directly to the National Grip, which reduces the risk of transmission losses.
The physical location itself has 24/7 security staff every day, as well as CCTV and proximity access control systems and electronic access management. There is also comprehensive support for all London customers with access to 24/7 support contact for queries, as well as IT equipment support every day 24/7.
For more information about specific carriers, and more on Telehouse’s business and operations, check out their official website.
8: Science Park 120 Digital Realty Amsterdam Data Center
Size: 68,000 Square Feet
This global company operates in European countries such as Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and more. There are over 210 data centers operated by Digital Realty in 14 countries and 5 continents.
There are a total of three Digital Realty data centers in Amsterdam, the biggest being this Science Park 120 location. The power capacity for this center is two lines of 12,000kW.
This company offers services such as colocation solutions, private suites for dedicated data storage, individualised systems of power configurations, connectivity and service functions. There’s also the added service of building out unique power bases for companies with fiber-provision sites with individualised requirements for the operation and storage preferences handled.
For more about the global company, you can see the official website.
9: Datacube Slovakia Data Center
Size: 42,500 Square Feet
Hailed as one of the most technologically advanced European data centers, this data center specialises in colocation services. Located in Bratislava, in Slovakia, this particular center, which makes it onto our list of the biggest data centers in Europe, is close to two electrical substations near a network of international and local fiber optic cable routes.
Protected by a 3-meter high perimeter fence, the center is serious about safety, with access only available through one gate.
The physical building is impressive in its structure, as the 18 cm thick steel-reinforced concrete walls house the rooms of data storage, which can hold a large load on each floor, with the ground floor capable of load bearing up to 5000kg/m2.
The storage spaces available are in 6 server rooms, office space and data storage space, throughout the center. The transportation of the stored racks uses advanced technology to make accessibility easeful for each data client’s needs.
As with the other more modern centers, the cooling capability of this center is very efficient, with an environmentally friendly design using external ambient pre-cooling and CRAC units, which distribute cold air through the floors. All technology for cooling is maintained at a redundancy of N+1.
This particular data center is ranked at #5 in the Bratislava market and also #5 in Slovakia among the 17 colocation services. For more information about the services this center offers, check out the official site at DataCube.
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10: DigiPlex Copenhagen Data Center
Size: 17,200 Square Feet
Though it’s on the smaller end of the biggest data centers in Europe, DigiPlex Copenhagen makes the list, as it is an important center in Copenhagen with its advanced technology and environmentally friendly design.
In its data halls, it offers standard and tailored IT housing that’s supported by N+1 redundant downflow cooling with extra unit security and fire protection. This is a carrier-neutral data center host, with multiple independent fiber carriers with diverse underground network entry points. The center has 24/7 security with high-grade boundary fencing and manned security personnel at all times. In terms of its energy footprint, the data center provides power from renewable wind and hydro sources.
For efficient access to the city center, this center’s location is close to a metro station, and just 10 minutes away from the international airport at Kastrup.
Read more about the services and specs of this data center, and the DigiPlex companies other centers at the official website. To learn more about data centres, see my guide on the top UK data centres.
References
- https://www.eudca.org/members/wpbdp_category/operator/
- https://www.racksolutions.com/news/data-center-news/top-5-largest-data-centers-in-europe/
- https://www.digitalrealty.com/data-centers/europe
- https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/news/portugal-telecom-opens-model-data-center-in-portugal/
- http://worldstopdatacenters.com/biggest-by-region/aema-size-rankings/
- https://www.racksolutions.com/news/data-center-news/top-5-largest-data-centers-in-europe/
- http://worldstopdatacenters.com/biggest-by-region/aema-size-rankings/