The local government of Neuchâtel has inaugurated a data center in the city of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Located on Avenue des Cadolles, this will be the city of Neuchâtel’s second government data center facility.
Built in partnership with local insurance firm Ecap, the project saw a total investment of 22.5 million francs ($24.6m).
The facility spans 3,230 sqm (34,767 sq ft), with 1,250 sqm (13,455 sq ft) dedicated to data center space and the rest used for office, storage, and technical shafts.
The IT capacity of the facility is not known, however Andrea Rizzo, director of the information systems management center, said the facility will be able to store several petabytes of data.
Plans for the data center were first mooted in 2016, with the Grand Council accepting a loan to build the new facility.
The canton added that the new facility allows its local IT department, named SIEN, to “physically group” under one roof.
State councilor Crystel Graf told local press, “It is important to have data centers on Neuchâtel soil in order to guarantee the flow of data. The possibility of having two data centers ensures the redundancy of information and thus avoids data loss.”
The local government will continue to operate its first data center in La Chaux-de-Fonds, however expects all data will be transferred to the new facility by 2027.
Neuchâtel is located in the north-west of Switzerland, close to both the German and French borders. It is widely considered the French-speaking capital of the canton. To the east, Bern is home to operators such as Colobern and Swisscom.