In the capital of the Netherlands and within a 50 km radius, 70% of all data centers in the country and one third of all data centers in Europe are located. Most of them opened literally in the last five years. This is indeed a lot, considering that Amsterdam is relatively small. Even Ryazan is bigger! It came to the point that in July 2019, the authorities of the Dutch capital, having concluded that no other major city in the world has as many data centers as Amsterdam, decided to limit the construction of new data centers at least until the end of 2019. What attracts data center operators and other IT companies (including us) to Amsterdam? While we haven't built our data center there yet, we have opened a new hermetic zone. More on that in the second part of the article, and in the first part – about the coveted Amsterdam.
According to data The Netherlands is also one of the largest fintech hubs in Europe, with over 430 companies operating in the market. The reason for the moratorium on the construction of new data centers is that they have started to take up too much space (significantly changing the appearance of the city, which attracts tourists largely due to its unique historical architecture) and create an unsustainable burden on the energy system and the real estate market (the influx of tech companies along with the constantly growing tourist flow has already made housing in Amsterdam unaffordable for most city residents). By the way, the city has tried to reduce the tourist flow by restricting Airbnb operations and imposing a ban on visiting the “Red Light District.” The moratorium was introduced to take a pause and formulate data center placement policies for better control over the situation in this area.
Dutch Fintech Infographic 4.0 by Holland Fintech
What attracts data center operators to Amsterdam
Cheap electricity
According to the Dutch Data Center Association (DDCA), the data centers in the country are fully electrified and operate 80% on clean energy from renewable sources, placing them at the forefront of sustainability among companies. In the past, the Dutch capital actively attracted technology companies with appealing tax rates and relatively cheap electricity. Now it is re-evaluating their approach.
Low taxes
The reason for implementing low taxes has been mentioned above – an effort to attract fintech companies from around the world. The situation has changed, but tax legislation cannot be quickly altered, so this point remains effective.
Loyal legislation
Local data sovereignty laws are too good to be true for the average Russian. Nonetheless, thanks to these laws, no one can seize your server without a court ruling citing 'evidence' for various reasons at any time. Dutch law permits what is banned in other countries: adult content. As a result, Dutch data centers are used not only by webmasters but also by hosting providers who profit from selling abuse-resistant hosting – a service that allows you to host any type of information and remain assured that the hosting company won't delete it without notice upon the first complaint (abuse). 'Any type of information' can include not just adult content but also warez, pharmaceuticals, doorway pages, and spam.
Convenient location, allowing for fast peering, low latency, and no losses on channels
In In general, and particularly in Amsterdam, the data center's location is simply ideal for businesses situated across various points in Europe, as 80% of European locations can be reached in just about 50 milliseconds. In recent years, technology companies have rushed to build such facilities because businesses and individuals are increasingly storing their data online and seeking quick access to it. The surge in demand for these centers coincided with the huge volume of online transactions. Moreover, Amsterdam serves as a suitable entry point for cloud providers into the European market with direct access to hundreds of operators.
It's time to introduce our new germozone, the Interxion AMS9 data center, located in Science Park () – a leading internet exchange center in Amsterdam, situated in North Holland province (where the town of Zaanstad even has a museum dedicated to Peter I).
Data Center in Amsterdam: Interxion AMS9
The campus offers 5,225 square meters of client space over 11 floors, equipped with numerous high-quality connectivity options. More than 120 companies reside here, ranging from startups to multinational corporations. It is an ever-expanding ecosystem that provides commercial IT capabilities with extremely low latency and secure connections.
The Science Park Data Center is owned by – a European data center service provider. It is located in the heart of Amsterdam. As the site where the Amsterdam Internet Exchange was first established, it hosts a rich and diverse community of communication service providers.
The company’s main offering is operator-independent connectivity, which includes providing space, power, and a secure environment for hosting clients' computing, networking, storage, and IT infrastructure. Interxion also enhances its core colocation offering with a range of additional services, including system monitoring, system management, technical support services, backup, and data storage.
At its data centers, Interxion allows approximately 1,500 clients to host their equipment and connect to a wide range of telecom operators and internet service providers, as well as other clients. The data centers function as content and connectivity hubs that facilitate the processing, storage, sharing, and distribution of this content, applications, data, and multimedia between operators and clients.
Interxion's client base is situated in the fast-growing segments of the market, including financial services, digital media, cloud and managed service providers, and telecom operators. It serves as a key connectivity hub for clients catering to the Netherlands and Western Europe.
Infrastructure
The equipped colocation space covers an area of 1,800 m2 and is located in a state-of-the-art reinforced concrete building. The floor load is 1,196 kg/m2. Connection to the community of clients, suppliers, and partners within the Interxion data centers is facilitated by cross-connections with minimal latency. Clients' information and communication technology (ICT) equipment can be housed in secure cabinets, racks, and stacks or in private rooms. The facility also includes dedicated offices and client portals, as well as a shared conference room.
There are special flood protection areas: the so-called 100-year floodplain and 500-year floodplain. The placement of floodplains is organized based on statistical frequency analysis of recurrence intervals used to estimate the probability of severe flooding due to precipitation – the "100-year flood" () and the "500-year flood" (500-year flood). This means the probability of flooding in the first case is 1 in 100 (i.e., 1% in any given year), and in the second case, it is 1 in 500 (i.e., 0.2% in any given year).
Energy Efficiency
The total power of the data center is 2,600 kW. The maximum power per rack is 10.0 kW. The type of power supply at the input is a single feed. Power distribution is implemented with parallel redundancy; simultaneously serving mechanical and electrical systems.
Backup power sources are configured as follows:
- UPS redundancy – N+1; Type of UPS is static.
- Power Distribution Unit (PDU) – N+1.
- Generator redundancy – N+1.
- Diesel generator runtime at full load – 24 hours.
Energy efficiency is ensured through a complex configuration of the cold aisle containment and airflow optimization functions. Interxion AMS9 has contracts with various suppliers of multiple fuel types.
Cooling
Primary cooling type – air-cooled chillers. Cooling limitations of air conditioners in the computer room with downward airflow (redundancy ; more information can be found ) achieved through specialized solutions for heat removal in high-density data center cooling systems; redundancy is designed according to the N+1 scheme. Redundancy for cooling towers and chillers is also organized according to the N+1 scheme.
Security
The security level at Interxion AMS9 data center is Tier 3. Security personnel are on-site 24/7. Controlled perimeter, round-the-clock remote monitoring via cameras, biometric authentication, two-factor authentication, and access via magnetic cards.
Certificates:
Additional Services
Interxion offers services Hands & Eyes for performing routine or emergency support tasks that include:
- Unpacking and assembling equipment on-site;
- Site preparation (installation, connection to power supply, etc. "turnkey");
- Installation of servers, routers, switches, and patch panels (patch panel, cross-connect panel);
- Network connection and wiring;
- Switch and route configuration;
- Technical support and troubleshooting;
- Infrastructure auditing and documentation preparation;
- Replacement or upgrade of equipment.
Network Operations Center (Network Operations Center, NOC) – monitoring the behavior
of the client's IT infrastructure. The service is particularly useful for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have an IT department, or for very large companies whose administration can become a complex task.
DCIM for clients – Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is a solution that provides control over every device in the racks, helping to automate monitoring processes that were previously done manually. Achieved through the implementation of specialized software, equipment, and sensors, DCIM provides a unified platform for real-time monitoring and management of all interdependent systems in IT infrastructure and facility infrastructure. It identifies and eliminates risk sources and enhances the availability of critical IT systems. It can also be used to highlight interdependencies between hardware and IT infrastructure to alert about gaps in system redundancy, as well as to provide dynamic, comprehensive benchmarks for energy consumption and efficiency.
Conclusion
By working with an Amsterdam data center, such as Interxion AMS9, you will have one of the fastest connections in Europe, as the data center will be connected to the largest internet traffic exchange points, providing convenient access to any data from anywhere in the world at any time, with a wide range of channels and the lowest latency – 99.99999% globally.
A favorable geographical location allows for good connectivity with both America and Europe simultaneously, including Ukraine and Russia – the primary consumers of traffic in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet.
Liberal Dutch legislation permits hosting such content that is restricted in other countries, including Russia (for instance, adult content, even though the share of foreign adult traffic is estimated to be up to 54%). Most importantly, the legal protection of your data will prevent any entities, including law enforcement agencies, from seizing information from your servers.
In light of the expanding footprint in the Netherlands, we hope to see you among our new and existing clients.
Source: habr.com
