A 21st century culture of business
Frankfurt is a world leader in banking, finance and international trading with a longstanding tradition of security and confidentiality. Frankfurt stands at the heart of European business and finance activities as a whole, including developments in FinTech.
Frankfurt and the surrounding region is therefore home to a large number of highly qualified IT specialists. The ability to hire competent staff is crucial for the operation and maintenance of cutting edge data centres, with all the latest developments in energy and cooling technology.
Central geographical location
Frankfurt is located in the centre of Europe, making it an ideal European hub for data traffic between Eastern and Western Europe as well as Northern and Southern Europe. Choosing this axis point of Europe enables you to achieve fast and efficient data transfers across the continent.
Data sovereignty
Data stored on physical servers must be protected from any potential interruptions in service: not only disruptive fluctuations in the national energy grid, but also economic and political disruptions. Unforeseen political disruptions might also have future effects on the efficacy of a cloud server.
Germany is known globally for its political and economic stability, which is attractive for long-term investments in infrastructure such as data centres. As data sovereignty becomes an increasing concern within the EU, Germany is one of the countries most actively spearheading standards across the continent in this regard. One thing is certain: the Silicon Valley slogan “to move fast and break things”, is at odds with the European attitude towards data protection.
Storing data in a city in a politically and economically stable country greatly reduces the risk of downtime in the long run. Political stability also means that the laws under which your data is stored and protected are most likely to remain the same for the foreseeable future.
Future-proof infrastructure
According to the FAZ, in Frankfurt there are “There are not many areas left where data centres can still be built.” Growth in the sector has meant that 20% of energy consumption in the city is taken up by data centres. The sector has grown so much that Frankfurt has become a conspicuous leader when it comes to server infrastructure.
Frankfurt has the largest number of data centres in continental Europe. According to Thomas Horn, Director of the Regional Association, FrankfurtRhineMain: “Without Frankurt’s data centre capacities, many digital services offered via the internet in Germany and other parts of Europe would simply be inconceivable”.
One of the reasons Frankfurt is renowned as one of the very best in the world for cloud computing is thanks to its excellent fibre optic infrastructure. In 2015, the DE-CIX in Frankfurt was the first operator to reach the record mark of four terabits per second (Tbps). This density of fibre optic interconnectivity enables fast and reliable data transmission, which is essential for the smooth operation of modern enterprises. It also means there is an abundance of access points, which facilitate the connection of data centres to the global network.
The German Commercial Internet Exchange (DE-CIX) in Frankfurt is one of the largest internet hubs in the world. It offers extremely high bandwidth and low latency. These frictionless conditions are vital for data centres that compete between themselves for the best annual performance benchmarks. DE-CIX connects numerous networks worldwide and makes Frankfurt an important hub for global internet traffic.
The existing fibre optic infrastructure forms a solid foundation for the expansion of future technologies such as 5G and beyond. Data centres in Frankfurt are therefore well prepared for future developments.
Climate and energy efficiency
Climate is another key factor to consider when deciding where to host your data. Natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes can take down a data centre, causing data to be lost and websites to go down for prolonged periods of time.
Frankfurt has been historically safe from extreme weather events such as heatwaves, severe storms or flooding, which are more common in other parts of the world. A lack of such disturbances reduces the risk of downtime and damage to infrastructure.
The Hesse region in general has a temperate climate with mild winters and warm, but not extremely hot, summers. This helps to reduce cooling costs for data centres, as less energy is required for air conditioning compared to hotter regions.
The temperate climate means that data centres can be operated more efficiently, which also benefits sustainability. Lower cooling requirements mean lower energy consumption and therefore a lower environmental impact.
Our Frankfurt data centre
Hyve provide managed private cloud, enterprise cloud and colocation services from our Frankfurt data centre. Until the 1st of October there will be no setup fees for new customers.
Get in touch with our cloud experts today to discuss your hosting options in this strategic part of Europe.
