As core European markets fill rapidly, the traditional FLAP-D (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin) locations have become ever more challenging to locate large-scale data center capacity. While a host of secondary cities throughout Europe all have excellent reasons for deployment, one city is often overlooked in the mix for large scale Cloud and AI deployments: Brussels!
EdgeConneX has 4MW of capacity available for immediate expansion in Brussels, with additional MW in process.
But why choose Brussels over other locations?
1. Population Density – It is easy to overlook that, while Belgium is a relatively small market in terms of total population, the country sits among some of the largest populations in Western Europe, with direct access to both fiber and national borders from the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Over 270 million people live within an 800-kilometer radius of Brussels, one of the highest figures across the continent and ahead of all the core markets mentioned earlier, except Frankfurt. That makes Brussels highly proximate to a large percentage of most major companies and individuals across Europe.
2. Distance to Primary Cities – From Brussels, it is roughly 200 kilometers to Amsterdam, 300 kilometers to Paris, and 400 kilometers to Frankfurt, with London just under 400 kilometers away, despite being located offshore. Robust long-haul fiber networks mean latency of 10 milliseconds or less to all four cities, enabling nearly any workload supporting these markets to be in Brussels as needed. That means Brussels can serve as both a new and alternative market for the traditional European data center hubs.
3. Customer Mix – Brussels serves as the home of many key organizations that comprise the European Union’s operations, making it an excellent location for serving some of the most important functions for the entire continent. This includes economic and defense components, as well as a range of regulatory and political requirements. The area is also home to Belgian national considerations, banks, and electronic and chemical firms, as well as a range of services dedicated to supporting these verticals. For Cloud and AI providers, Brussels presents an excellent opportunity to locally support government and large enterprise organizations.
4. Renewable Energy Mix – Renewables now provide a quarter of the energy produced in Belgium, with a nearly 1,900% increase in production since the turn of the century. Much of this comes from wind power, with offshore turbines in the North Sea coming online in phases since 2009, and further projects are possible. With power limitations becoming a primary challenge in many traditional markets, Brussels offers both scalable power solutions and sustainable power options.
5, Market Growth – The Belgian Digital Infrastructure Association predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% from 2023 through the end of the decade, with global cloud platforms expected to enter the market during this period. Services utilizing these platforms would find it advantageous to locate adjacent to their infrastructure, with phased expansion continuing. EdgeConneX has been a key contributor to this growth, having built a hyperscale data center campus in Brussels, and will continue to invest and support the development of Cloud and AI customers in Belgium.
To learn more about our available capacity and discuss where you want to build next, please reach out to Capacity@edgeconnex.com.