Global Switch expands its European footprint as construction begins at its Amsterdam data centre campus

Amsterdam, 24 June - Global Switch, a leading owner, operator and developer of large scale network dense, carrier and cloud neutral multi-tenanted data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific has announced that in response to growing demand construction has started on the first stage of a new data centre in Amsterdam.

The 32,000 sq m data centre, Global Switch Amsterdam East, will be built immediately adjacent to the existing Amsterdam West facility located in the Slotervaart/Overtoomseveld district, close to the main Dutch cable infrastructure, the financial district and city centre. Global Switch Amsterdam is the only multi-tenant provider in the city with a dedicated mains supply, and once all stages of the new data centre are complete, the utility power supply capacity will increase by 40MVA, bringing the campus total to 72MVA supplied at 50kV.

In contrast to the recent moratorium on granting new data centre planning consents, importantly Global Switch Amsterdam East is a known project with Gemeente Amsterdam (City of Amsterdam) and is not impacted either by the widely announced ‘building stop’ or affected by power availability across the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam.

Similar to other Global Switch developments, energy efficiency is at the core of the design. Amsterdam East will incorporate the latest technologies such a flooded room cooling design with hot aisle containment allowing flexible IT rack load deployment. The cooling will be generated using a free-cooling water-based cooling system and will allow the heat to be exported to the local community. The data centre will be targeting an annualised design Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2 and a BREEAM "Very Good" certification. In addition, as part of Global Switch’s comprehensive Energy Management Programme, customers will be offered 100% green energy.

John Corcoran, CEO Global Switch, said, “We are continuing to see demand for high quality, resilient and energy efficient data centres providing multiple connectivity options particularly from global hyperscale cloud providers looking for highly experienced data centre operators, such as Global Switch, as well as demand from European, US and Asian customers. We are therefore delighted to have now started construction of Global Switch Amsterdam East which will be our fourteenth data centre.”

Jasper Lankhorst, Managing Director Global Switch Amsterdam, said, “It is very exciting to be announcing this substantial addition of world class technical data centre capacity to our Amsterdam campus, particularly at a time when there is a permit stop for new data centre developments in the city and a shortage in power availability in some places of the Amsterdam Metro Area. With the acceleration of the digital economy, Global Switch Amsterdam East will provide an Open Compute Platform ready environment enabling customers to deploy at scale both with speed and cost effectively. As with all our data centres, customers will also benefit from bespoke data centre solutions, as well as a highly resilient and secure space for housing mission critical IT equipment.”

Global Switch Amsterdam West is a core node not just for the Netherlands, but also for Europe and beyond. It is one of the most connected hubs in the country and currently hosts a multitude of global and national telecommunications and cloud providers, AMS-IX and NL-IX as well as a wide range of internet services providers. With direct fibre connections between the two data centres, customers of Amsterdam East will be able to access this connectivity rich environment and will benefit from a wide choice of cloud and network providers as well as direct access to the global IP backbone. The two data centres will provide a total of four diverse entry points and four interconnected Meet Me Rooms ensuring highly resilient connections.

Peter van Burgel, CEO, AMS-IX, said, “We welcome this news by our long-term partner Global Switch. This announcement underlines the importance of the Amsterdam region as one of the largest connectivity hubs in the world and as a desirable climate for digital businesses. It also shows that the digitalisation continues to be a strong, sustainable driver for growth, even in a time when building options are challenging and the economic outlook is uncertain.”

Stijn Grove, Managing Director Dutch Data Center Association (DDA), said, “The impact of digitalisation on our economy and society is immense. The recent events have only made people more aware that digitalisation is the sustainable way forward to grow our economy. A sound digital foundation is of crucial importance to achieve this. The Metro Region Amsterdam (MRA) is one of the key data hubs in the world and known as the Digital Gateway to Europe. Global Switch’ expansion in the MRA region will strengthen this international position as key data hub even further, and the Dutch and international economy as a whole. We are proud to have Global Switch as a member of the association and congratulate them with their expansion.”

Technical Snapshot

• Full access to the existing network-dense, low-latency environment with a multitude of carriers and network service providers.
• Access to peering platforms AMS-IX, NL-IX and all major cloud platforms.
• Hyperconnected and ideally located adjacent to the main regional and international fibre routes.
• Built in accordance to the highest operational standards with matching SLA’s.
• Bespoke solutions with scalable space and power.
• Open Compute Platform (OCP) facility compliance.
• Environmentally sustainable targeting a PUE of less than 1.2.
• Certified ISO9001, 14001, 27001, 50001, OHSAS 18001, AMS-IX, PCI-DSS, ISAE 3402 compliant.