Alcatel-Lucent and Cinia Group announced in early December that they are partnering to deploy an undersea fiber optic cable system to provide a link between Nordic data centers and those in continental Europe. Cinia Group is a Finnish government-owned venture, and the cable system is part of a larger plan by the country to improve the capacity of its international data transfers.
The program, dubbed Sea Lion, will create a more than 680-mile cable system that will connect Helsinki data center networks with those in the Rostock-Ribnitz area of Germany. It is designed to have an ultimate capacity of 15 TBs per second and will cost about $74 million to create.
Sea Lion is expected to be completed in the beginning of 2016 and will be essential to enhancing the availability of reliable and secure ultra-broadband connectivity for Finland data center services. The cable network is “the most direct, the fastest and has the most potential capacity” when compared to existing options, said Cinia Group executive vice president Jukka-Pekka Joensuu.
“Broadband connectivity is a major growth opportunity for the foreseeable future and the development of a robust telecommunication infrastructure is vital,” said Joensuu. “We are pleased to begin our cooperation with Alcatel-Lucent on this significant project for Finland, contributing to strengthen its position as a leading country in data center investments, as well as promoting innovation and increased connectivity to a growth path for the Finnish and European economy.”
Nordic Data Center Market Becoming More Desirable
The new cable system will also provide greater security for users by diversifying the route for data traffic in the area. Currently, most data coming from Finland travels through Sweden, where authorities are allowed to intercept and monitor activity. This new path will bypass Sweden and direct traffic through countries with stronger privacy regulations.
A variety of big names in the tech industry – such as Google and Facebook – have begun to look at Nordic data center sites for new operations, as the region has abundant, reliable energy and a moderate climate ideal for open air cooling. Finland recently enhanced their data center tax incentives for companies looking to locate there, lowering the energy tax rate for providers interested in large-scale data storage solutions in the country.
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