The Spanish government wants to turn the country’s capital into a leading digital hub or nerve centre. And not just on a national level, but at the cutting edge in the whole of southern Europe. To achieve this strategic goal, they’re planning an injection of some €8.2 billion over the coming years in Madrid’s GDP, all aimed at developing new data centres.

This approach is set to be framed within the context of the long-term strategic actions outlined in Spain’s 2025 Digital Agenda. Recently, in a report entitled Madrid, Southern Europe’s Digital Hub: a Coordinated Push to Revitalise the Economy, published by Interxion, the Spanish Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, Roberto Sánchez, declared “we want Spain to be a magnet for international data connectivity infrastructure. An achievable goal due to the strength of our connectivity”.

Efforts to put Madrid on Europe’s digital map

The group responsible for the aforementioned report, Interxion, is one of many corporations, like lyntia, joining forces through a variety of investments, actions and strategic developments in data centres throughout the capital. lyntia’s strategic partners include, among others, Data4, NTT Global Data Centers or Equinix, for example. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the parties involved, significant advances have been made to put Madrid firmly on the digital map once and for all.

• Technology giants like Google and Amazon have decided to base their digital infrastructure in southern Europe with Madrid at the heart.
• There are now more international interconnections in the region thanks to the implementation of two intercontinental submarine cable infrastructure projects: Grace Hopper and 2Africa. In both cases, Madrid will be the interconnecting point of these networks.
• Greater capacity of digital infrastructure providers, with new stakeholders entering the market, and business development with ongoing projects – including from lyntia – in the form of new data centres.
• Redistributing investments to other strategic points in Europe, after Brexit.

In any case, the levels of investment being planned by the Spanish government will have a significant impact on the capital’s economy and jobs market. The direct impact on Madrid’s GDP between 2020 and 2025 is expected to reach €2.598 billion, a figure that climbs to €4.624 billion when including indirect impacts. 680 direct jobs and over 1,600 indirect roles will be created.

A ‘digital paradise’ for the telecommunications sector

lyntia’s involvement in this type of strategic effort is designed to pave the way for other stakeholders in the ICT sector. As an infrastructure provider, it connects all the main data centres in Madrid with its fibre network, with which it provides carriers – on a national, international, regional and local level – with connectivity to these points. Additionally, FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) are some other key stakeholders in connecting these points. In the end, this connectivity with the main data centres also offers cloud companies, not to mention an endless number of integrators, development opportunities.