Vodafone will open a new data center in İzmir
Vodafone, which has established a joint venture company with Edgnex Data Centers by DAMAC, one of the world’s leading digital infrastructure providers, will open a new data center in Izmir in line with this partnership. The data center, with an investment of approximately 100 million USD, is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2025. The center, which will start its activities with data transportation and hosting services in the first stage, will reach a capacity of up to 6 Megawatts in the long term, becoming one of Vodafone’s largest capacity data centers in the Aegean Region. With the new data center, which will be designed as a structure suitable for growth up to a total capacity of 12 Megawatts, the number of Vodafone’s data centers in Turkey’s metropolitan cities will reach 6 and the white area size will reach 13,500 square meters.
Turkey should take its place in the cloud economy
A press conference was held in Istanbul for the Vodafone İzmir Data Center project with the participation of Vodafone Turkey CEO Engin Aksoy and Edgnex Data Centers by DAMAC Vice President and Board Member Aqil Ali. Vodafone Türkiye CEO Engin Aksoy said:
“We have an important role in our country’s investment climate and we are one of the players contributing to the Turkish economy. The real value of the investment we made in the last 17 years exceeded 157.6 billion TL. As the Vodafone ecosystem, we contributed 68 billion TL to Turkey’s GDP in the 2022-23 fiscal year alone. One of our future goals is to grow exponentially over the next 5 years with our investments in data center, cloud solutions, cyber security, customized mobile network and IoT. The global cloud computing market size is predicted to reach 947.3 billion USD by 2026. It is unthinkable for Turkey not to take part in this rising economy. Investing in reliable and high-capacity data centers for cloud computing remains a necessity. With this understanding, we joined forces with DAMAC and established a joint venture company to bring a new data center to our country. Our aim with this strategic partnership is to develop data center facilities in Turkey and other global markets. In this context, we expect the total investment amount of our joint data center project to be established in Izmir to reach 100 million USD. When our new data center is completed, it will form one of the strongest links of our investments in technology. We will continue to contribute to the sustainable growth of our country with our global experience and local talents.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Aqil Ali, Vice President and Board Member of Edgnex Data Centers by DAMAC, said: “The joint venture we have established with Vodafone is a huge milestone for DAMAC and will provide an important digital infrastructure in the growing market on the west coast of Turkey. Due to its location, Izmir is extremely convenient to meet the data center demand of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. We attach importance to establishing global strategic partnerships where we can have maximum impact on local digital economies. Therefore, our work with Vodafone will provide a world-class facility in a rapidly developing market.”
Design will be according to Tier 3 standards
İzmir is located close to many subsea cable transit stations providing access to Europe, Africa and Asia. Due to this strategic location, the ongoing undersea cable development work in the region becomes attractive for internet exchange points and content distribution network (CDN) providers. The submarine cable system, which will connect Turkey and Greece, will connect İzmir to Athens and Crete. In this way, data center customers will be provided with low latency access service thanks to redundant connection routes.
The new data center, which will have the latest technology, will be designed according to Tier 3 standards. Accordingly, in the data center industry, data centers with 99.982% availability, full back up, and high technology features, along with near-zero error working conditions, are considered to have reached the Tier 3 level. The new data center, which will be built based on earthquake resistance standards, will meet all the necessary criteria for the Tier 3 level with its redundant infrastructure capacity including cooling system, redundant computing systems and a reliable technology center that can be maintained even while it is operating. The new data center will have green energy components and renewable energy will be used in the center.
End-to-end service
Planned as a carrier-independent data center, the data center will be a center of attraction for customers from all segments. The center, which will make Vodafone a “one-stop shop” in the region, will be connected to Europe via both terrestrial and submarine cables, especially for content producers in the region, companies providing services at wholesale level and corporate companies in need of disaster response center (DRC) services. This will play an important role in making the center preferred by customers. The new data center will also be a very important center for the “over the internet media service providers” (OTT) and “hyper-scaler” segments. This will enable the segment to receive data center services on a geographically alternative route.
Vodafone currently provides service with a total of 5 data centers, 2 in İstanbul and one each in İzmir, Ankara and Adana. Thanks to the services provided with redundant infrastructure through these centers, critical applications of businesses are managed in an uninterrupted, safe and efficient manner. Vodafone supports businesses to focus on their own business with end-to-end solutions such as Connection, Cloud Technologies, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, and Managed Services.
