The Province of Pavia and the Italian Datacenter Association (IDA) have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework for data center development in the region.

The agreement aims to reduce red tape while ensuring that new facilities benefit the local communities where they are built and reduce location conflicts.

It introduces a “provincial atlas” determining eligible and non-eligible areas for data center development, territorial equalization, and compensation mechanisms.

The framework also includes a permanent technical committee with municipalities and competent bodies, and administrative simplification and coordination measures.

The local administration and IDA said that these initiatives will encourage investment while ensuring the region benefits from new infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and employment opportunities.

The province of Pavia, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, is emerging as an alternative for data center investment to nearby Milan, offering more available and relatively cheaper land.

There are nine data centers belonging to five operators in Pavia. Of these, four are hyperscale, and one is an Edge facility.

The IDA was established in 2022 to represent data center developers and operators in the country. It was founded by major industry players, including Microsoft, Equinix, and Rai Way.

This week, the association appointed former Equinix Italy managing director Luca Beltramino as its new president to succeed Sherif Rizkalla.

During his 25-year career in the industry, Beltramino held the roles of global senior vice president at Uptime Institute and managing director of Interxion (now Digital Realty).

As managing director of Supersnap Italy, he oversaw the launch of the first Switch/Stack data center outside the US.

His most recent post was chief data center officer at Rai Way, where he was responsible for the development of data center infrastructure on a national scale.

Beltramino said: “Taking on the presidency of IDA is both a great honor and a significant responsibility at a pivotal moment for the evolution of the sector. I would like to thank the outgoing president, Sherif Rizkalla, and the former board members for their work and for the trust placed in me.

“The path undertaken in recent years has enabled the Association to achieve important results, particularly in consolidating its institutional positioning, which today represents a solid foundation on which to build. The new presidency stands fully in continuity with what has been achieved so far, with the aim of further strengthening IDA’s role.”

Learn more about the data center market in Italy and Southern Europe, and meet with other executives and experts from the region at the DCN Milan event later this year