The investment in digital infrastructures will mean an estimated GDP growth of 8,283 million euros for the Community of Madrid, according to a report published this Thursday by the research consultancy IDG together with the data center company Interxion. The investment already announced in this regard, of 680 million for the next five years, would trigger not only the wealth of the region but also its employment, with 2,489 new jobs. The figures support the positioning of the central region to become a digital hub for southern Europe, thanks to the already existing connectivity network and the incipient creation of various data centers in the capital, the so-called data centers.
This study estimates the direct impact on GDP at 2,598 million euros (with the associated creation of 680 jobs), from the construction works of, for example, data centers to their maintenance, as well as the acquisition of computer equipment. required to develop this activity.
The indirect impact, in addition, would be quantified in 4,624 million euros of contribution to GDP (and 1,623 jobs), an amount generated throughout the entire supply chain, with materials or contracts from third parties.
Regarding the induced impact, GDP would improve by 1,061 million euros (and would open 186 new jobs), due to the dedication that the new salaries would have in areas such as housing or transport.
The total result is therefore that of the aforementioned 8,283 million euros. “Spain already occupies the sixth position in Europe with more than 60 data centers “, recalled Roberto Sánchez, Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures.
Robert Assink, general director of Interxion, recalled in the presentation of the report the entry into Spain of two new providers of digital data center infrastructure, the French Data4 and the Japanese NTT (which will compete with companies such as its own Interxion); the new undersea cables in execution, Facebook’s 2Africa and Google’s Grace Hopper; the settlement in Spain of the digital giants cloud, Amazon around Zaragoza and Microsoft and Google in Madrid; and other events such as the transfer from the United Kingdom to Madrid of the Galileo Satellite Security Surveillance Center, as a result of Brexit.
Connections in favor, elections against
The person in charge of Interxion has also assessed the density of the country’s infrastructure network, a fact on which the Secretary of State has emphasized: “Our main strength is our connectivity infrastructure. 80.4% of the population has access to the fiber optic network and by the end of this year we will have reached 91% of the population with 100 megabits per second, which gives an idea of capillarity “, Sánchez stressed.
However, in its desire to become the main digital hub for southern Europe (to the north they dominate Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris), Madrid would find rivals such as Marseille, which also has direct access to the sea and therefore functions as a direct mooring for submarine cables.
Furthermore, the new elections for the capital, called by the president and regional leader of the PP Isabel DÃaz Ayuso, are not the best news for the development of data centers that are currently under development: “Stability it is always better to prepare investments and know what to hold on to. The uncertainty to whom you are going to send is not good. We already have a impasse for the connection to the electrical network of our new Mad4 data center. The cessation of the regional government has affected positions such as those of the Department of Industry “, has revealed Assink in this regard.
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