Italy’s biggest datacentre campus to enjoy €500m growth spurt

Italian cloud services provider Aruba SpA has raised €500m in investment, which it has used to expand its Global Cloud Data Center (GCDC) site in Ponte San Pietro, which is already Italy’s largest server farm.

The company has added two further datacentres to its 200,000m² campus, including one 17,000 m² 9 MW facility that features three large data rooms, while the other is a multi-storey site with eight data rooms spread across two levels that spans 14,000m² and boasts 8MW of power.

“The latest-generation datacentres are the result of Aruba’s long experience in the development, design, construction and management of high-tech infrastructures, and have become a reference point for the digitisation in Italy in terms of IT infrastructures, and cement GCDC’s position as an asset in the broader path of national transformation and innovation,” the company said in a statement.

“The proprietary datacentres store the data of millions of Italian and international citizens and companies, and will create important skilled jobs in the area.”

In addition to this, the firm has also added an events space to the site, known as the Aruba Auditorium, that has capacity for 400 people.

Aruba further revealed there are plans in place to build another two datacentres on the site, and to ensure the firm has access to the tech talent it needs to staff the facilities, it has also set up a training school, known as the Aruba Academy, and formed partnerships with the University of Bergamo and the Polytechnic of Turin.

Stefano Cecconi, CEO of Aruba, said the expansion of the GCDC will play an important role in underpinning the digital transformation efforts of businesses across the country, and will do so in a sustainable way.

To this point, the campus is powered by renewable sources, and the campus infrastructure includes photovoltaic and geothermal systems, and is connected to a hydroelectric plant on the nearby Brembo River.

“We design our technological campuses not only with the aim of future-proofing them, but also to be as eco-sustainable as possible, so as to minimise the environmental impact, make consumption more efficient – in full compliance with reliability and safety standards – and achieve the highest levels of certification,” said Cecconi.

“We are particularly happy to inaugurate the new Aruba Auditorium, a place of aggregation and interaction that will allow us, other companies or local realities to organise events in a highly technological and innovative context.”