Enterprise cloud vendor Salesforce.com recently announced plans to open a UK data center, Germany data center and France data center within the next two years. The new facilities are being built in response to increasing customer demand in the region. Salesforce.com posted a 41 percent rise in European income during the 2013 fiscal year and the new European data centers will boost the organization’s service footprint.
The group plans to launch its first U.K. data center in August, with two additional new data centers to come online in France and Germany in 2015, IDG News Service reported. Besides increasing the company’s presence in Europe, the new facilities may also help address regional customers’ worries about storing sensitive data in the U.S.
“All major U.S. cloud companies are adding European data centers and ones in Asia-Pacific,” said Ray Wang, chairman and founder of Constellation Research. “I think the impact of the NSA and Snowden has been a catalyst, as well as tightening data privacy laws.”
A Salesforce.com spokesperson stated that plans for the three new data centers come “as a result of our tremendous growth and customer momentum” in the region. The company first announced the U.K. data center initiative in May, when Salesforce.com signed with NTT Europe to establish its sixth global facility.
At the time of the announcement, the company noted that Europe was the fastest growing area of financial growth in 2013. IDC research showed that this trend is set to continue, as the public cloud software market in Europe is predicted to expand three times as fast as other IT sectors, reaching €23.9 billion, or nearly $4 billion, by 2017.
Robin Balen, NTT Europe wholesale data center business managing director, said construction of Salesforce.com’s U.K. facility will center around data center sustainability efforts.
“Powered 100 percent by renewable energy resources, Salesforce.com’s data center in the U.K will deliver an environmentally friendly and highly resilient facility for customers in the region,” Balen said.
