IOEMA subsea cable to land in the Netherlands
Author: Joe Peck
The IOEMA Project, which plans to lay subsea fibre optic cables in Northern Europe, has selected Greenhouse Datacenters as an additional landing partner for the landing of the IOEMA subsea cable in Scheveningen (Rotterdam / The Hague area).
This marks the seventh landing point in Northern Europe and the second in the Netherlands for the IOEMA cable. The first Dutch landing will be at Eemshaven, in the country’s northern region.
The project
The IOEMA project is establishing an AI-ready, high-capacity fibre optic connection between the five key Northern European markets.
The Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Norway will be directly connected via a 1,600-kilometre repeatered subsea cable, with further connectivity to France under consideration.
IOEMA is taking international tensions and security into account by fully armouring and protecting the subsea cable system over its entire length. IOEMA is also considering adding sensors to the system to make it the first SMART cable in Northern Europe.
IOEMA is collaborating on this initiative with partners including Eurofiber, Arelion, Colt, EXA Infrastructure, Relined, Bulk, and EWE TEL.
The latest collaboration with Greenhouse Datacenters is driven in part by its strategic South Holland location, just 12 kilometres from where the subsea cable from the North Sea comes ashore in Scheveningen (Rotterdam / The Hague).
Eckhard Bruckschen, CTO of IOEMA Fibre, says, “We are pleased to announce an additional landing partner for the second Dutch landing point for the IOEMA fibre optic cable in the Netherlands, in the Rotterdam / The Hague area.
“By partnering with Greenhouse Datacenters, IOEMA connects directly into a rich connectivity ecosystem, including an on-site AMS-IX PoP. This makes the IOEMA cable accessible to the broader market in South Holland and beyond.
“Organisations in this area can benefit from ultra-fast, redundant, secure, and AI-ready connections to other internet hubs in Northern Europe via Greenhouse.”
A new digital hub
Greenhouse Datacenters CEO Ruben van der Zwan says the selection of Greenhouse as landing partner for the IOEMA subsea cable highlights the strategic importance of its data centres for the Dutch South Holland region and the Netherlands as a whole.
“The Axiom/Terabit report, Study on the development of the submarine cable market, which was recently on the agenda of the Dutch House of Representatives, extensively examined the strategic national importance of new submarine cables for the Netherlands,” comments Ruben.
“The deployment of new submarine cables contributes significantly to stimulating the digital business climate in the Netherlands. Together with data centres and internet exchanges, submarine cables form the basis for further economic development of the Netherlands as an international digital hub.”
Rick Pijpers, who is involved in the project as a strategic advisor via PWDR.AI, adds, “The landing station for the subsea cable at Greenhouse is much more than a technical facility; it is a strategic digital hub.
“A data centre that functions as a landing station becomes a gateway to international data traffic, attracting ecosystems of carriers, cloud providers, and enterprises, thereby strengthening the digital economy.
“For Greenhouse and IOEMA, this not only strengthens their own position, but also boosts international connectivity between Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium. It creates a new sovereign AI corridor connecting the locations where AI factories will be established in the coming years.”
According to Peter van Burgel, CEO of AMS-IX, the landing of the subsea cable in Greenhouse’s data centres in the Rotterdam / The Hague area will strengthen the AMS-IX Point-of-Presence located there.
He argues, “This makes Greenhouse a powerful digital hub and an important alternative to the Amsterdam data centre market. Enhanced by AI applications, the IOEMA subsea cable will bring huge amounts of international network traffic to Greenhouse, while the existing AMS-IX PoP will enable direct exchange with international and regional carrier, cloud, ISP, and content networks.
“This will deliver speed, redundancy, and cost efficiency in digital traffic, reinforcing the South Holland region as a digital hub for AI-driven growth.”
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