US-based hosting company SoftLayer announced a major expansion of its European operation Tuesday. The company launched a new data center in Amsterdam, where it also opened its new European headquarters.

Overall, SoftLayer said it planned to invest about US$75m in European operations over the next two years. Part of it is the launch of new network "points of presence" (PoP) in Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt.

SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby said the launch strengthened the company's foothold in Europe by bringing its services closer to the customer base. "Proximity to our customers is crucial to driving innovation and improving a better end-user experience," he said.

SoftLayer currently does more than 50% of its business outside North America, Crosby said. Its continuing expansion into international markets gives its customers more control and flexibility in the ways they manage and build Cloud infrastructure and services.

Core of the company's European customer base is made up of large enterprises, Internet-based small and medium-size businesses, social-media companies and gaming start-ups. SoftLayer provides Cloud, dedicated and managed hosting solutions.

The Amsterdam data center has capacity for more than 15,000 servers. Connectivity within the facility is provided by NTT, Telia, Level 3 and Global Exchange. It features direct connections to SoftLayer's data centers in Washington, D.C., and New York.

The Amsterdam facility became SoftLayer's 13th data center and its 16th PoP worldwide. Its global network integrates three architectures: public, private, and data center to data center.

The company calls this integrated topology Network Within a Network and says it provides maximum accessibility, security and control.