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DATA4 wins award for leading French Investor in Digital Technology in Italy
June 2016 by Marc Jacob
On Tuesday 7 June, the DATA4 Group was presented with the 2016 Award for French Digital Economy Investment in Italy by the President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Milan, Jean-Marc Deshaires, at a ceremony attended by Paul Hunsinger, Minister-Adviser for the Foreign Economic Affairs, on behalf of Catherine Colonna, Ambassador of France in Italy, and Olivier Brochet, General Consul of France in Italy. This honour is in recognition of DATA4’s work with Italian companies, helping them in their digital transformation. Since 2013, the Group has invested €100m in Italy, and plans to increase this to a total of €250m.
DATA4 is the European specialist in hyper-connected and ultra-secure data hosting. The company owns and operates data centers on behalf of businesses, from start-ups to key accounts, all of whom trust in DATA4 to host their critical IT infrastructure. Founded in France in 2006, the Group exported its digital campus model to Italy in 2013. Since then, it has built three next-generation data centers – DC01 in 2014, DC02 in 2015 and DC03 in December 2016.
DATA4’s aim over the next five years is to double both in size and in turnover. To achieve this, "Italy is a key growth driver for the group," explains Olivier Micheli, DATA4’s Chief Executive Officer. "From 2013, we made the strategic – and successful – choice to establish ourselves in Milan at a time when the market and the competition were turning to the north of Europe. The Group has since invested €100m and plans to increase this to a total of €250m to support Italian companies in their digital transformation in line with the Renzi government’s Digital Agenda."
The Group has the financial, property and energy resources to continue its expansion in Italy. With 10ha of land, DATA4 is planning to construct seven new buildings by 2025, resulting in a stock of 10 data centers (totalling 50,000m² of hosting space and 60MW of IT load). This significant capacity for expansion demonstrates the confidence DATA4 has in the future of the Italian economy.
"The data center plays a crucial role in the digital economy," explains Olivier Micheli.
"As a fortress protecting IT systems and a shared space for interaction between all members of the ecosystem, these infrastructures are now the foundations on which the entire IT architecture is built. That’s why we focus on quality in our investments so we’re able to offer our clients robust, secure, connected, and high-performance hosting solutions."
Among its most recent investments, DATA4 has signed a partnership with MIX (Milan Internet Exchange) and RETELIT in order to create a digital hub able to interconnect the Milan Campus with city-wide and international networks as well as the biggest European cloud providers and peering centers. In addition, DATA4 now also provides the sector with an IT load capacity that is unique in Italy, allowing the operator to meet its clients’ changing needs throughout their hybrid cloud outsourcing project.
"We are extremely honoured to have received this Award in recognition of our work, bringing us a high level of visibility and credibility to our investment strategy. DATA4 intends to be an established player in the Italian market. Our next target is therefore to accelerate the Group’s development in Italy," concludes Olivier Micheli.
