Today in Spain there are some 60 data center facilities owned by national and international companies of all sizes, providing the storage, connectivity and compute power that is helping to fuel the country’s growth.

As a result, the data center sector, too, is enjoying a period of strong growth with the construction and expansion of new facilities from well-known companies such as Quark, AWS, Google, CyrusOne, EdgeConneX, Equinix, Interxion, NTT Global Data Centers, Merlin Properties, Orange Spain, Stack Infrastructure and DATA4 Group.

Furthermore, the geographic location of the country has made the Iberian Peninsula a hub for Southern Europe, serving as an anchor point for the interconnection of five continents – Europe, Africa, South America, North America and even the Middle East.

“The growth of the data center sector is a global phenomenon, the consequence of a change at a technological level," says Ricardo Abad, managing director of international engineering and architectural consultancy Quark.

“But Spain is expected to enjoy a high rate of growth in the coming years as a result of several factors, including its geographic position, which has boosted its regional and global connectivity due with the arrival of new submarine cables, the recent creation of Spain as a cloud region by the major tech giants, the country’s renewable energy capacity, both installed and projected for the future, and government support for this type of investment, as reflected in its 2025 Digital Spain Plan.”

In addition, a large amount of space and energy has already been earmarked to support the construction of a slew of new data centers in Spain, which are expected to come on stream from 2023, taking advantage of restrictions on data center development elsewhere in the European Union. "In Spain, we can receive investments initially planned for other European countries, but which have been restricted due to energy supply and other challenges," says Abad.

The international engineering and architecture consultancy specializes in data centers and other critical facilities. It aims to offer solutions that can improve the quality, reliability, efficiency and sustainability of data center facilities, promoting investment in data center infrastructure in the Spanish market, with an experienced team that already has a number of successful projects under its belt.

And, after more than a decade in operation, the company is also able to take its expertise to an international level. “Internationally, we are seen as a benchmark in the sector with strong recognition as a consulting and engineering company that facilitates the investment of its clients, eliminating all kinds of uncertainty regarding license requests, designing according to international standards, costs and planning and so on,” says Abad.

He continues: "Quark's history is the history of the data center sector in Spain. Just as the sector has grown, Quark has multiplied in size by a factor of six over the past three years alone," says Abad.

In addition, the company is a founder member of SPAINDC, Spanish Association of Data Centers, which was set-up to fight for the interests of the data center sector in Spain.

While Spain suffered as much as any country with Covid, and certainly isn’t immune from the post-Covid supply chain paralysis or the global effects of the Russo-Ukraine War, it has the potential

Spain is at the forefront of emerging industry countries, facing the most pressing vicissitudes that industry has had to face on a global scale. The crisis caused by Covid-19, the paralysis of the global supply chain and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, have dealt a serious blow globally, but it has also served to do so Spain shows all the potential it has and has become the strongest rival on the continent, even above traditional FLAP markets.

Quark is an international engineering and architectural consultancy specialising in data centers and critical facilities.