Data center development across Europe has long centered around what were first known as the FLAP markets — Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris — major global cities, each with deep business and financial sectors. With the onset of hyperscale builds, Dublin became a major destination for data center development, and the acronym became FLAP-D across these major locales. These markets are still critical to the data center ecosystem, with over 500 MW of construction underway among them and each serving as initial entry points to major and minor cloud services embarking on European expansion. New companies and ventures alike are still launched primarily in these markets, as the recent $1 billion initial xScale investment between Equinix and GIC to build hyperscale campuses indicates. Interest in the FLAP-D markets now competes with physical limitations — Amsterdam has announced a temporary development moratorium on new builds and land and power remain scarce across the slate.
Even as these markets continue to thrive, a host of newer locations have joined the data center landscape as operators respond to client demand across the region. Hyperscale cloud spend alone was more than a $10 billion business in 2019 across Europe, with an anticipated rise to an incredible $58 billion by 2024 as both large companies and governments alike continue their IT transformation. The recent pandemic has put a focus on wider accessibility and scalability for the future, as organizations have reconsidered their operations with most personnel working from home for a good portion of the year.