Data Center Investment News — 06/01/2023
Simplex inaugurates data center in Cyprus
Cyprus data center firm Simplex has held an inauguration ceremony for its second data center on the Mediterranean island.
The company last month held an official opening ceremony for its LCA1 facility in Larnaca. The purpose-built facility spans 10,600 sq ft (985 sqm) and offers 1MW of capacity.
Simplex was established in 2007, launching the first carrier neutral data center in the country, LIM1 in Limassol.
Michael Omerou, managing director of Simplex, said: “I am really proud and excited to be standing in front of such a mass gathering that inevitably demonstrates the importance of data centers in general and LCA1 in particular. Neutral, multi-tenant data centers like LCA1 consist of important, critical infrastructure for any country that among others create a huge economic potential.”
Singtel and Telkom Indonesia break ground on data center in Batam
Singtel and Telkom have broken ground on a data center in the Batam area of Indonesia. Last month Singtel announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Telkom Indonesia and Indonesian energy company Medco Power for its first data center project in the country.
Singtel, Telkom, and Medco Power held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility, located on an 8-hectare site in Kabil Industrial Estate along Batam’s eastern seaboard.
Serving hyperscalers, multinationals, and local businesses in Indonesia and Singapore, the data center campus will be developed in three phases and have a total capacity of 51MW at full build-out. The initial phase of the project will deliver approximately 20MW and be powered by renewable energy from Medco Power.
The data center will be majority owned by Telkom – under the NeutraDC name – while Singtel and Medco Power will be minority shareholders.
Key Point planning 4MW data center in Yekaterinburg, Beeline to be anchor tenant
Russian data center firm Key Point has announced plans for a new facility in Yekaterinburg, with telco Beeline as the anchor tenant.
Key Point said the 3,200 sqm (34,450 sq ft) data center will be built inside an existing building and will be constructed with the aim of achieving Tier III certification. General contractor and designer Free Technologies Engineering have begun the design process; the 300-rack facility will offer up to 4MW and is scheduled to launch in December 2023.
A second release announced that the facility is to be developed in partnership with Russian telco PJSC VimpelCom (Beeline) that will see the company be the data center’s anchor tenant.
This will be the third such agreement between the two companies, following similar announcements in Vladivostok in Primorsky Krai and Novosibirsk.
48MW data center site proposed in Middlesbrough, UK
An application for a new data center campus is being put forward at a former chemicals plant site outside Middlesbrough in north-east England.
First reported by TeessideLive, Redcar and Cleveland Council has received an application for a data center and associated ancillary buildings and infrastructure.
Consultancy Heatons Planning last month filed an application for a ‘screening opinion’ for the development, with the council since deciding an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) wasn’t required. Full planning permission is yet to be requested.
The proposed development site covers an area of 13 hectares and is part of the former Croda site within the Wilton International complex. The development would be expected to take around three years.
Digital Edge close to acquiring plot of land outside Mumbai for first Indian data center
Singapore-based data center firm Digital Edge is reportedly close to acquiring a plot of land outside Mumbai, India, on which to develop its first facility in the country.
The India Economic Times reports the company is in “advanced talks” in advanced talks to acquire a 47-acre land parcel in Thane, Maharashtra, along with realty developer Assetz Property Group from steel manufacturer Mukand.
According to unnamed people with ‘direct knowledge’ of the matter, the freehold plot is spread across Thane’s Kalwe and Dighe localities and is valued at more than Rs 806 crore ($97.2m). NTT previously acquired around 55 acres from Mukand in the same area last year for Rs 801 crore (then $106m).
New York-based private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners formed Digital Edge in August 2020. The company has more than a dozen data centers in operation or construction across the APAC region; including eight in Japan across Tokyo and Osaka; three in South Korea across Seoul, Busan, and Incheon; and one each in Manila in the Philippines and Jakarta in Indonesia.
GreenGeeks Launches Data Center Location in Singapore
GreenGeeks, a web hosting platform has launched its newest data center location in Singapore.
The new location will service customers within the Asia-Pacific region and be the fourth data center location available to customers, the company said in a statement. Also, this location will be in addition to existing locations in Chicago, Montreal and Amsterdam.
Kaumil Patel, COO of GreenGeeks said: “We are proud to carry on our commitment of providing reliable green energy web hosting solutions by expanding our reach into this part of the world. Our goal is to make sure that no matter where you are located in the world, customers have access to fast page loading speeds and reliable performance when it comes time for you to host your website or application.”
The new location will mean faster response times and improved overall performance for customers located in the Asia-pacific region as compared to other locations in North America and Europe.
Atman unveils plans for 58MW Warsaw data centre
Atman has purchased a 5.5-hectare plot of land to build a data centre in the Polish capital.
Located in Duchnice near Ożarów Mazowiecki, the Atman Data Center Warsaw-3 campus has been projected with an IT capacity of 43 MW at full build with the first phase scheduled to open in Q4 2024.
The Atman Data Center Warsaw-3 (WAW-3) campus, the company’s third in the region, will consist of three buildings housing a total of 36 data halls, nearly 19,000 sqm of colocation space, total power capacity exceeding 58 MW – including the 43MW of IT load.
Sławomir Koszołko, President of the Management Board of Atman sp. z o.o. said: “Atman’s completion of the purchase of the land for its fourth data centre location follows our long-term investment strategy.
Digital Realty buying up land in Greece for extra expansion
Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) said it is under contract to purchase additional land in Athens that is expected to support 15 megawatts (MW) of additional data centre capacity.
The land parcel, located in the adjacent property to ATH3 and ATH4 in Koropi, a suburban town of Athens, is expected to support the development of new facilities which will connect to Digital Realty’s existing facilities in the region and its global portfolio of more than 300 data centres in 50+ metros across 27 countries on six continents.
Apostolos Kakkos, Chairman and CEO of Lamda Hellix, now Digital Realty, said: “Today, with this latest development, a personal strategic plan and long-time vision is being realized: firmly placing Greece on the digital map and increasing its competitiveness globally.
“I’m particularly proud of Digital Realty’s current position as one of the largest providers of data centre services in Southeast Europe, with three data centres in operation and others under development, adding value to Greece’s economy from both an economic and local employment perspective.”
US operator Prime Data Centers has completed a pre-lease with a “large, publicly-traded technology company”.
The transaction secures twelve megawatts at Prime’s Los Angeles data centre for delivery in Q4 of 2023. The new customer, whose name has not been disclosed by the group, will use the capacity to optimise content delivery for its growing user base in the Southern California region.
Nicholas Laag, Chief Executive Officer of Prime Data Centers, said: “On behalf of everyone at Prime, I would like to welcome our newest customer to the Los Angeles market.”
LAX-01, Prime’s first Southern California data centre, features a three-story design, 261,000 square feet and 33 megawatts of critical IT load capacity.
Harrison Street backs data centre acquisition as the group tops $2.6bn in digital assets investments
Data centre operator fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547) has partnered with investment management firm Harrison Street to purchase the Chase Tower in McAllen, Texas.
This is 1547 and Harrison Street’s seventh data centre endeavour since 2020.
With over 209,000 square feet and serviced by 46 carrier networks located in this 17-story building, the Chase Tower is the telecommunication hub and Internet gateway between Mexico and the United States and serves as the financial hub for the greater Rio Grande Valley.
CEO of 1547, J. Todd Raymond, said: “1547 continues to move forward on its mission to create an ecosystem of highly dense and interconnected data centres in key markets throughout the United States.
Amazon senior finance head to lead Stream Data Centers investor partner collaborations
Stream Data Centers has grown its executive academy with the appointment of former Amazon data centre leader Callan Space as Vice President of Finance.
In this role, Space will spearhead the development of new financial processes, goal-supported structures and investor-partner collaborations that will help the company continue to scale.
Before joining Stream, she served as the Senior Finance Manager for Amazon, where she played a key role in leading the U.S. East data centre region.
Commenting on her new position, Space said: “I am extremely excited to join Stream and help build a world-class finance organization to continue supporting the industry’s largest and most advanced hyperscale and global enterprise customers.
Data Castle launched to operate data centers in Germany, starts constructing first site in Frankfurt
A new data center joint venture plans to build and operate facilities in Germany.
Data Castle has started construction on its first data center in the town of Schwalbach am Taunus, just outside of Frankfurt. The 25MVA data center is the first in what the company calls the ‘Green Data Center – Platform.’
Data Castle is a new joint venture between global alternative investment firm Angelo Gordon and data center development management company DCD Data Center Developers (editor’s note: the company has no relation to DCD), which itself launched earlier this year.
The company is led by Dr. Christopher Stief, of boutique advisory firm DCA Data Center Advisors, and chief strategy officer Marcus Köhler.