Switzerland is an attractive economic and research location, as well as a growing data centre market in the heart of Europe. It is home to major corporations and NGOs, serves as a hub for global technology providers for research and development and boasts leading universities that closely collaborate with the industry.
Since its founding in 1995, Green Datacenter AG has grown to become Switzerland's leading data centre provider, winning a string of awards. At the Data Cloud Global Awards 2024 in Cannes, Green impressed with its waste heat utilisation project and innovative ambitions. At the DCS Awards in London, the jury selected the best data centre providers, with Green winning the ‘New Design/Build Project of the Year’ Award 2023 for its flagship Data Center M facility in Zurich, hailed as the best new data centre project in Europe.
Green will soon celebrate its 30th birthday and shows no signs of slowing down. Green continues to grow due to customer trust, driven by customer orientation, excellent performance and operational reliability. As a preferred partner, Green is familiar with the demands of hyperscalers as well as those of large enterprises in finance, pharma, industry and ICT. Green is dedicated to uniting these requirements and creating advanced data centre campuses that are technologically advanced in all aspects.
Roger Sueess, CEO of Green, has observed significant benefits from the company's diversified portfolio and hybrid infrastructure model. This approach has proven particularly attractive to enterprise clients who prefer to colocate their operations in facilities that also host major cloud service providers, commonly known as hyperscalers.
Roger explains: "We’ve taken data centre design and operations to the next level, achieving peak performance, resilience, energy efficiency and supercharged it with services for our enterprise and hyperscale customers.” He adds: “Our team ensures that, beyond our data centre portfolio, we offer tailored services for enterprise customers, supporting them on their journey towards outsourcing and digitalisation.”
Six years ago, Green was acquired by InfraVia. Ashley Davis is an Executive Board Member at Green, where he also works in a dual role as an advisor to investors InfraVia Capital. “In the past five years we have reinvented our portfolio and driven our expansion forward,” Ashley explains.
The company has doubled its capacity within three years and launched additional services for relocation, hands & eyes support, as well as Private Cloud platforms and a broad range of connectivity solutions.
At present, there are three large data centres under construction, with capacity expected to double again within three years. In light of these developments, Roger and Ashley share insights into their journey of growth.
The hidden opportunities in AI disruption and the challenges of growth
The trend towards data centre outsourcing and cloudification continues, while AI is still in its early stages and the true demand is not yet foreseeable. Roger's major challenge is to manage the growth of data centre capacity through new campus projects, while handling personnel growth. His aim is to create a powerful infrastructure to ensure the digitalisation journey and evolution of the companies Green supports are successful. His favourite part about working in the data centre sector is creating solutions for a sustainable digital future. Roger explains: "We have the power today to shape the footprint that digitalisation leaves behind. My passion is to forge new paths for eco-friendly solutions and to challenge our teams and partners to do the same.”
From its base in Switzerland, Green is in good company, as the country is home to many Fortune 500 leaders on their own ESG journey. Google has a large development centre in Zurich, representing its largest site outside the United States. IBM and Huawei both operate research laboratories in Zurich, while Roche and Novartis have significant research facilities in Basel, strong presences in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. The technical universities ETH Zurich and EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne) are not only educational institutions but also active in researching and developing new technologies.
"Switzerland isn't just a beautiful place with excellent infrastructure; many big industry giants have chosen it as their R&D hub," Roger explains. “It's no surprise that you have ETH and EPFL, two of the leading tech universities in Switzerland, strongly focusing on AI. That to me, is also part of the excitement that we see in Switzerland. Not only are we exploring new ways of developing AI and advancing it, but you see various sectors actually starting to use it.”
Switzerland is not only renowned for its research and development activities but also its networking of academia, industry and startups, giving the businesses which work there a dynamic environment for innovation and technological advancement.
“Right now, we are at an inflexion point with AI coming into the sector,” Ashley says. “It's been extremely exciting, if I look back over the last five years, having the ability to grow Green to what it is today – a multi-campus provider and supplier of Hyperscalers.”
AI is now disrupting the status quo in terms of growth and power. Roger elaborates: "In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, scale and speed are vital. At Green, we’re set up to deliver and lead."
For Green, this growth also means increasing responsibility with regards to how Green integrates its market performance into society and the communities it operates in, to sustainably shape the digital future.
Cities used to develop alongside rivers, bridges and trade routes. Today it’s similar with data centres. Roger explains. “We expand to locations that are close to high-speed data networks, economic zones and where data or applications create added value and we can generate circular benefits.”
Data centres are planned based on factors like high availability, georedundancy, latency, energy, geology and so on. But he says: “We also aim to settle where we can make the best use of our resources, remain attractive in design and fit into the urban development concept.” He adds: “Locations are carefully chosen so that we can implement the opportunities of the circular economy as efficiently as possible, as we do with waste heat utilisation and entire energy networks. However, as a data centre operator, we can’t do this alone. Such projects require extensive and forward-thinking cooperations between companies, authorities and consumers. It takes much more than just placing the next data centre on a greenfield site. This is the challenge, but also the fascination.”
Green is one of the pioneers in Switzerland in utilising waste heat and has been recognised for its achievements. The Metro-Campus Zurich, Green's latest project, supplies waste heat to 11,500 households throughout the region and delivers cold in return. The solution is highly energy-efficient. Green initiated the project, brought the parties together and supported the development of the heating network. "To ‘Do the right thing’ is our firm guiding principle. Even though it is challenging, I am convinced that this is the only right way. Our resources are precious and we must not let waste heat dissipate unused,” Roger says.
Ashley and Roger are each powered by career inspirations. There are certain turning points in each of their career journeys to which they can attribute their success today.
Roger spent many years in regulated markets, seeing the demand from hyperscalers and enterprise customers alike. Having a true understanding of what these operators are driven by is extremely helpful.
“We've both had a lot of experience driving large projects where we’ve had to work with many different kinds of people and utilise a global workforce, always under cost-pressure,” Roger explains.
Ashley, meanwhile, identifies a pivotal shift: organisations that once operated their own data centres have realised this is no longer necessary.
“Roger and I have both been demanding consumers of data centres and that consumption was based upon a utility model to us, as a customer,” he says. “In that instance, it was a large bank. Now we’re flipping that coin with the understanding and knowledge of what ‘excellent’ looks like. We’re able to offer that now to our customers.”
Leveraging Green's expertise in operational excellence and sustainability beyond Switzerland
Switzerland is an attractive location and emerging market for data centres. Green manages several ongoing data centre projects and is the local hero. The operator has an appetite for expansion abroad, while still being able to scale and grow in Switzerland, from its base in Lupfig.
Customers have come to rely on Green, having seen the company grow and deliver on what it promises. The company stands for excellence in operations and its services are centred around the needs of hyperscalers and enterprises, which was recognised by ISG (Information Services Group) in its latest Provider Lens market study. Green has been named leader of Data centre and Colocation services in Switzerland, for the fifth consecutive year.
“There is a tonne of competition out there that is ordinary, but very few considered extraordinary,” says Ashley, reflecting on the ISG award. “I would certainly class Green as extraordinary. When we think about our client base in Switzerland, that's where we've made the real differentiation, with our peer communities.”
For Roger, what makes Green best in class is its balance between enterprise and hyperscale and allowing for exactly what the industry envisions in terms of hybrid setup.
Green is now entering the phase of not just building single megawatts, but dozens of megawatts and is looking to the hundreds.
“We have been looking at how we can ensure sustainable solutions in our deliveries," Roger continues. "Whether it’s district heating, use of renewable energy, integrating solar panels, liquid cooling, or using sustainable materials in construction, we are exploring all options. With our clients, we are in ongoing dialogue, especially discussing new approaches in cooling. However, this is only possible through collaboration,” Roger says.
“As a data centre operator, we are responsible for the design, construction and operability of the building, but also for how it delivers sustainable solutions” Ashley adds. “We have a duty of care and we take that very seriously. Our location allows for free cooling approximately 300 days per year, enabling us to operate with high efficiency,” adds Ashley.
Switzerland’s location also offers additional advantages. The country’s power production is predominantly renewable, with 75% of electricity coming from clean sources, particularly hydroelectric energy. Green uses 100% renewable energy for data centre operations, making it available for customers too.
Green's expansion plans leave various options open. "We have large customers who would like to grow with us in other regions," explains Ashley. This underscores that Green is well-established in the market. The quality standards that Green meets are externally audited. As the only data centre provider in Switzerland, Green meets the requirements of the Uptime Institute and holds a "Management & Operations Stamp of Approval," which is regularly reviewed. Therefore, scaling Green's expertise into other markets is an opportunity.
Switzerland is driving growth in the data centre industry
Switzerland is a growing tier two market, a classification which refers to mid-sized cities or regions which are not primary markets but hold economic and strategic importance. Looking at Europe, the FLAP-D market is mostly saturated and highly regulated due to energy management. The three year outlook indicates capacity in Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and London will be doubled. Munich, Vienna, Warsaw, Berlin, Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Copenhagen and Stockholm are forecast to have the greatest growth potential in the coming years.
What are the drivers of growth? In addition to the disruption of AI, Green believes in the digitalisation that it sees across multiple industries, from finance to manufacturing. The cloud adoption has now become mainstream across numerous sectors, as digitalisation evolves and disrupts business flows. As-a-Service models will become mainstream and the rapid growth of the cloud computing market is reflected in the construction of new data centres.
Understanding the Swiss market has allowed Green to drive sizable growth with the hyperscalers who are entering the market. Moreover the company has supported enterprises which have started to move away from operating their own data centres and towards co-located spaces. Harnessing this momentum, Green offers its customers solutions along their journey to the cloud and the proximity to the leading cloud providers.
“Switzerland is hard to master for foreign data centre operators, as it's a highly fractured market and a federated model. Each municipality has their own laws and elements that a business needs to deal with,” says Roger. “Over the past three decades, Green has built the expertise to successfully bring projects to fruition and that is what truly matters,” adds Ashley.
The next 18 months will be a very intense period for Green, seeing further construction, commissioning and the unity of those facilities into operations with clients.
“In addition to those three facilities which are active and will keep us busy on a day-to-day basis, we're currently looking at several additional developments that we’re planning in Switzerland,” says Roger.
Then, the pan-European endeavour could be the next big thing for Green. Now, with the advent of AI and the surge in demand, the challenge for Green is asking its clients, how much do they need?
