Inside Iceland's Newest Data Center

Iceland and other far-northern countries are becoming increasingly popular sites to build data centers. These countries offer cool climates, political stability and low energy costs -- all attractive features to data center operators. At same time, increased network connectivity and the rise of cloud computing means that physical proximity is less of an issue for some customers and classes of workload.

I recently visited Verne Global's newest data center in Iceland. This slideshow explores some of the factors behind the rise of the cold-climate data center and takes a peek inside the new construction.

Global Reach

The world is a very big place, especially when it comes to data. Connectivity extends almost everywhere and traffic is on the rise. The image above, provided by VeriSign, shows how complex connectivity has become worldwide. However, increased connectivity also means more location choices. As it stands now, a data center can serve a global business from almost anywhere in the world.