Poland’s data center industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years establishing the country as a strong contender in the European data center market. With several global hyperscale cloud providers as well as local data center operators building large scale facilities in the country, Poland is emerging as a key destination for colocation and cloud services.
Geographic Advantages
Poland benefits from a strategic geographic location in Central Europe. With access to key fiber routes, Poland provides low latency connectivity to major population and economic centers across Europe. The country’s central location allows it to reach over 300 million consumers within a 2 hour flight. Further, Poland shares borders with 7 European Union member states facilitating easy access to major European markets.
In terms of infrastructure, Poland has a well-developed transportation network of roads and railways connecting all major cities. Key airports in Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, and other cities offer global flights connecting Poland with business hubs worldwide. Dedicated hyperscale-ready industrial parks and business zones in major cities provide large campuses and plug-and-play facilities for scaling data center operations.
Low Operating Costs
Poland offers competitive operating costs for Data Center Services compared to other major European markets. Key factors contributing to lower costs include lower real estate and construction costs, affordable and renewable power tariffs, tax incentives for data center investment as well as a skilled, multilingual workforce.
Real estate costs for large industrial and commercial spaces average 25-30% lower than Western European markets. Salaries for IT professionals and operational staff range 20-30% lower than in Germany or the Netherlands. Power costs average $0.06-0.08/kWh with additional renewable energy credits, compared to $0.10-0.12/kWh in much of Western Europe. Overall, total operating costs can be up to 30% lower in Poland.
Strong Regulatory Environment
The Polish government recognizes data centers as a strategic industry and offers supportive policies to encourage foreign investment. Key measures include 7-14 year tax exemptions for new data center builds under certain conditions as well as R&D tax credits. The government has also streamlined processes for obtaining necessary construction, electrical and other regulatory approvals to accelerate data center development.
Additionally, Poland is a member of European Union and NATO ensuring political stability and alignment with international trade and privacy regulations like GDPR. Enterprises appreciate Poland’s pro-business investment policies, developed legal system and shared currency with the Eurozone. These factors mitigate risks for customers and help establish confidence in Poland as a secure jurisdiction for data sovereignty.
Robust Connectivity Ecosystem
International connectivity to Poland has significantly expanded over the last five years with major submarine cable landings and the rollout of widespread fiber infrastructure. Poland hosts key European routes like Germany-Poland Ampacimon, North Sea Connect, ElaDanube and others improving access to major markets.
Carrier hotels in Warsaw, Krakow and other cities have become interconnection hubs housing over 250 network and cloud service providers. Local exchange PoIntelekom along with providers like Nectrics, Exatel and Orange Business Services augment international capacity with extensive metro fiber networks across major cities and routes. 5G rollout is further enhancing bandwidth potential.
Enterprise Demand Rises
Enterprises across diverse industries have recognized the advantages driving increasing demand for colocation and cloud services from Polish data centers. Key sectors outsourcing infrastructure and workloads to Poland include banking & finance, manufacturing, SCM/logistics, energy/utilities and public sector organizations.
Established global cloud platforms have also set up or expanded major Polish regions in recent years. Providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud and IBM Cloud now operate large data centers and cloud regions meeting the needs of businesses and government agencies in Poland and across Europe.
Local data center operators have grown considerably as well to meet this demand. Companies such as Appendix, Green House Data, MDCC, Node Pole and ATM Grupa operate facilities in prime Polish markets, providing flexible colocation, private cloud and managed hosting solutions.
Hyperscale Expansion
Hyperscale providers have made sizeable long term investment commitments recognizing Poland’s strategic importance. AWS expanded its Europe (Central) Region to three Availability Zones across two data center sites in Warsaw. Microsoft Azure also launched a new region in Warsaw, developing two datacenter campuses which will host over 60,000 servers and generate up to 800 local jobs by 2022.
Google plans to invest over $2 billion in Poland by 2023, building two cloud regions. Plans include a 600,000 square foot facility in Warsaw which will rank among the largest Google data centers globally. Facebook continues ramping up its existing Pruszków data center campus and has outlined investment targets to develop renewables and cooling infrastructure supporting hyperscale operations.
With well-connected campuses spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet each, these mega data center parks represent massive infusion of colocation capacity. Poland’s thriving industry is set for further growth helping meet the burgeoning demand for secure, affordable digital infrastructure services across Europe and beyond in the coming years.
