Global Switch starts construction of massive Amsterdam data center

Global Switch kicked off construction 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.

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.

The company notes that its existing 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.

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.”