Sweden in the spotlight as Amazon Web Services’ three data centres go live

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Cloud services giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) has opened three new data centres in the Stockholm region in what it professes to be a major push to build on and capture the fast-growing Nordic market opportunity. 

Sweden offers the lowest total cost of electricity in the EU following a 2017 government decision to cut energy tax for data centres. The country is also the EU leader in sustainability and has the highest share of renewables coupled with a 98% carbon-free energy footprint.

“Today’s announcement represents a milestone for Sweden and theNordic region. This expansion of the AWS regional cloud capacity will enhance even more Nordic innovation for start-ups, large enterprises and public sector organisations. Moving data storage to a fossil-free cloud is fully inline with Sweden’s high ambition around sustainability”, says Tomas Sokolnicki, head of data centres by Sweden at Business Sweden.

Rapid digitalisation and the increasing rate of cloud deployment are two additional factors that have put Sweden in the spotlight for data centres and international investors. According to figures presented by AWS, by relying on fewer servers and the superior efficiency of large-scale cloud infrastructure, cloud customers require just 16% of the power typically consumed by on-premise data centres.

Andy Jassy, chief executive officer, Amazon Web Services confirms in a statement that demand from tens of thousands of Nordic customers has been a driving force for the establishment of a Nordic AWS region inStockholm and adds, “We’re excited to deliver our AWS Stockholm Region today to meet these customer requests.”

“Sweden aims to deliver on high expectations from global investors. Having built and launched three data centres within 20 months from the investment decision proves that Sweden has what it takes to move the digital industry to the next level in terms of infrastructure, time to market, competence and, not the least, sustainability. We’re excited that AWS is now live in Sweden and will be part of our digital transformation journey”, says KarlMellon, VP Investments, Business Sweden.

According to a recent report published by the NordicCouncil of Ministers, the Nordic data centre construction market is estimated to attract annual investments of EUR 2-4.3 billion by 2025 which corresponds to an installed annual capacity of 280-580 MW per year. The Nordic region is well connected to the UK, continental Europe, and the US, and new major fibre optic installations linking the Nordics to North America and Asia are being deployed or planned.