What are the challenges in planning new data centres and expanding existing ones? Sascha E. Pollok, CEO of IPHH GmbH, will be speaking at the Data Centre Expert Summit on the topic of “Greenfield & Brownfield”. In this interview, he explains what it’s all about.
Mr Pollok, what do you see as the key drivers for growth and expansion of existing DC locations?
The key factors are, of course, the availability of energy and the zoning of the locations in terms of noise and air emissions, for example. There are many challenges, so we prefer to grow in our existing locations.
Greenfield or brownfield – which strategy do you favour for the expansion of the Hamburg site? And where do you see the advantages and disadvantages?
For us as a data centre operator, particularly in the area of diverse connectivity, location is fundamentally important. For the most part, we see suitable areas in Hamburg as brownfield projects. The areas in Hamburg that offer us sufficient connectivity are exclusively located in industrial areas that have already been used as alternatives in the past.
How important is the topic of geo-redundancy to you?
For us as a colo operator, the topic of geo-redundancy is driven exclusively by customer requirements. Such requests are not frequent, but they do occur regularly. As a previously exclusively regional provider in Hamburg, we resorted to partner data centres. Since we became part of the Portus Data Centres Group, we have been working with our sister companies in Munich and Luxembourg within the group.
Mr Pollok, thank you very much for the interview!
