Datacenter Forum
updated: 07-01-2021 | 17:08
Northern Data acquires a data center facility in Northern Sweden to meet massive customer demand. The site currently consists of six data center halls on an area of 2.5 hectares and will now be further expanded by Northern Data following the acquisition.
Baby it's cold outside
Northern Data's new site is located in the Northern Swedish city of Boden, which has an average annual temperature of 1.3 degrees Celsius due to its location around 80 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. The location is therefore ideal for passive energy-saving cooling of the HPC hardware.
It's about connectivity and surplus (renewable) energy
In addition to the ideal HPC temperature conditions, the region in Northern Sweden is characterized by high connectivity and very cheap regional surplus electricity from renewable energy sources. The electricity for Northern Data's new site is 100 percent sourced from renewable energy, generated by hydropower plants in the region. The local hydropower plants have a capacity of about 4.5 gigawatts (GW), producing about 14 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, which is available to Northern Data at the lowest electricity prices in the EU.
PUE below industry standard
Not least due to the cool air temperatures near the Arctic Circle, an excellent PUE value ("Power Usage Effectiveness") of 1.07 is achieved. The PUE value puts the total energy consumption of a data center in relation to the energy consumption of the IT infrastructure. The closer the value is to 1.0, the more efficient the data center. With a value of 1.07, Northern Data's future data center is among the worldwide leaders and is well below the industry average of 1.67.
Hydro66
The site, which has won awards for its ultra-efficiency, meets the very highest requirements, with various ISO certifications and was completed by data center operator Hydro66 only in 2019. Northern Data will start allocating hardware instantly due to the high demand from its customers and will continue to massively expand the site immediately.
"Stroke of luck"
Northern Data CEO Aroosh Thillainathan comments: "Due to the high demand for HPC capacity, we are constantly reviewing options to quickly secure additional sites through acquisitions in addition to building our own data centers. This allows us to further accelerate our growth. In view of this strategy, the new site in Northern Sweden is not only a real stroke of luck but also a significant expansion step for our company. Not only can we use it instantly, but we can also expand and develop it quite considerably, which we will do immediately. Our new site offers important advantages, such as lowest energy costs and ultra-efficiency, which will make it an important part of the Northern Data group going forward."
The acquisition of the entire data center facility, including two operating companies and part of the team, is still subject to, among others, a successful due diligence process and will take place through the issuance of EUR 21 million in shares, subject to a full lock-up period of two years, and a cash component of EUR 4 million.
