Damac and Vodafone to build $100m data centre in Turkey

Edgnex

Edgnex, a data centre subsidiary of Dubai real estate developer Damac, has established a joint venture with Vodafone Turkey to build its first data centre in the Turkish city of Izmir at an estimated cost of $100 million.

The six megawatts capacity data centre is expected to be completed next year, as cloud computing gathers pace.

“The Eastern Mediterranean region has a high demand for data centres, making Izmir, one of the largest and oldest cities in Turkey, an ideal location to meet this need,” said Edgnex vice chairman Aqil Ali.

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Demand is growing for data centres across the Mena region, which is “underserved” Hassan Alnaqbi, CEO of Khazna Data Centers, told AGBI earlier this year.

Dubai-based Khazna, which has 14 working centres, 10 to 12 under construction and four more planned, is one of the largest operators in the region.

Artificial intelligence will be the biggest driver of growth in data centre demand worldwide, according to Mouna Essa-Egh, VP Middle East and Africa at Schneider Electric.

Vodafone plans to grow exponentially over the next five years with investments in data centres, cloud solutions, cyber security, mobile private networks and IoT, said Vodafone Turkey CEO Engin Aksoy.

He said that the Vodafone ecosystem made a significant contribution of 68 billion lira ($8 billion) to Turkey’s GDP during the fiscal year of 2022-23, adding that investments over 17 years have exceeded 158 billion lira.

“Our goal through this strategic partnership is to develop data centre facilities in both Turkey and international markets. The data centre we are set to build in Izmir will be our primary joint project,” he added.

The new data centre will serve as a “one-stop-shop” for the region, connecting to Europe through terrestrial and submarine cables. It will specifically serve content creators, wholesale service providers and businesses needing disaster recovery centre services.