"What started as a dream over a year ago recently became a reality - a European Trade Group aimed to help support European data centers was officially announced January 8, 2015. The Dutch Datacenter Association (DDA) represents the top 20 data center providers and combined it houses 70 different locations in the Netherlands. The founding members include local and international names such as Digital Realty, Equinix, Eurofiber, Interxion and Telecity Group. The association was established to encourage interaction between participants, the market, the government, and interest groups.
Why the need for a datacenter association? Well, since the 16th Century the Netherlands has been a center for world trade and is currently the world's leading market for data centers. There was an overwhelming need to create a voice, or visual representation for the industry to get what it needs to continue its growth. According to Stijn Grove the organizations director ""The data center industry in the Netherlands has grown up"" We have our own organization in order to preserve what we have built and to get stronger in the future together ""Through this partnership; we can quickly achieve tangible results"" Grove continues to explain that the data center industry needs more collaboration not only between data centers, but with the entire internet industry.
The DDA believes in the importance of data centers as they relate to the economy so they have made it their main goal to help the industry continue to grow. To achieve this goal, the group has focused on three areas of importance: increasing interaction with stakeholders and the government, promoting the role of the data center industry in society and most importantly supporting the environment, education and technology in the country. According to their official website, the DDA will work closely with Dutch government officials to support existing projects in these areas. They plan to be a voice on regulations that affect datacenters as well as a voice on policies when it comes to environment, education and society. They will also focus some of their attention on bringing structure to Dutch data centers. One way they will achieve this they will begin Mapping Out all of the datacenter locations to make it clear how many data centers are currently active in the Netherlands.
The full list of the members include: Alticom, BT, BIT, Cofely, Datacenter Brabant, Datacenter Groningen, Dataplace, Digital Realty, Equinix, Eurofiber, EvoSwitch, Global-E, KPN, Interconnect, Interxion, Previder, SmartDC, Telecity Group, The Datacenter Group and TCN.
The organization's structure is open, and DDA expects to attract more members in early 2015."
