Sibintek, a subsidiary of one of Russia’s largest oil companies, has just acquired a data center located in the Free Economic Zone of Zelenograd near Moscow.

According to Cnews.ru, the company could have paid as much as $70 million for the 1,870 square meter facility previously owned by AiEmTi. It was opened in 2015 and consists of three data halls with 50 server racks each.

Sibintek said it decided to purchase a complete facility instead of building and certifying its own in order to save time. The site will be used to consolidate IT resources and store and process industrial Internet of Things data.

Tax avoidance

Sibintek (from Siberian Internet technologies) is a major systems integrator, its main customer being Rosneft – a public company specializing in oil extraction and refinement in the north of Russia.

Sibintek’s new data center, Cloud DC Moscow 1, was originally built by AiEmTi with a focus on cloud services – the facility didn’t offer colocation, instead filling its data halls with high-density equipment, drawing up to 22 kW of power per rack.

The data center has received Tier III Design certification from the Uptime Institute, confirming that it is concurrently maintainable.

Thanks to the cold climate, Moscow 1 relies on free cooling all year long - but in the case of an extremely hot summer, it is able to turn on the adiabatic system. The facility reportedly delivers a PUE of 1.2.

This was the first and only CloudDC data center built by AiEmTi, and the deal means the company has essentially ceased operations for the near future.

Zelenograd is one of four special ‘innovation zones’ established across Russia to serve as hubs for technology companies. The location offers generous tax exemptions - like the tax on property and import duties on hardware.