The Google Group Alphabet has big plans in Germany. The Internet giant is investing around one billion euros in its cloud infrastructure in the Federal Republic. An important milestone was reached on Friday with the opening of its own data center in Hanau near Frankfurt. Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said that locating the data center in Hanau would strengthen Germany as an “attractive location for artificial intelligence and cloud services”.
The master plan also includes the establishment of a new cloud region in the Berlin-Brandenburg area. However, Google will not operate the facility, which is to be built near BER airport, but rather rent it. According to Google, a contract with the energy supplier Engie ensures that the systems in Germany are operated in a climate-neutral manner in many areas.
Why did Google choose Hanau?
The Brothers Grimm city benefits above all from its proximity to the DE-Cix internet exchange point in Frankfurt am Main, one of the largest internet exchanges in the world. It is only around 20 kilometers away from the new Google data center. Many national and international data streams meet here, making Frankfurt a central hub for data traffic in Europe.
The connection ensures that, in addition to high bandwidths, extremely short runtimes for the data are also achieved. Experts speak of low latency here. Hanau is also earthquake-proof and has a reliable power supply.
What role does location play in data protection?
In Germany, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, which sets strict rules for the handling and storage of personal data of EU citizens.
By operating a data center within the EU, Google can ensure that data is stored and processed within the region and does not have to be constantly sent across the Atlantic. This alone does not meet all of the legal requirements of the GDPR. However, Google Cloud sellers should find it easier to answer customers’ complex compliance questions if they can point to a location in Germany.
What data is loading in the data center?
No, the facility does not process and store data from private consumers, but rather provides storage and cloud services for commercial customers of Google Cloud. Reference customers include Commerzbank, the automotive supplier Fehrer and the Lufthansa Group. The company said the system should help meet the growing demand for cloud services in Germany.
What does the settlement mean for Hanau?
The Google data center marks the change from the nuclear industry to the digital economy for the city with a population of around 100,000. In the 1980s, a centerpiece of the German nuclear industry, a so-called Mox fuel element plant, was supposed to be built in Hanau, but its commissioning was abandoned in 1995 after a number of nuclear scandals. Google’s data center is now to be built on the site where the thick walls of a striking Siemens nuclear bunker once stood.
The mayor of Hanau, Claus Kaminsky (SPD), said that with Google they have a strong partner at their side. Google supports local institutions and aims to use the waste heat to supply the neighboring industrial area. “This makes an important contribution to transforming our materials technology location in the long term and keeping it competitive. In the medium term, the company’s trade tax will of course also contribute to the expansion of the city’s infrastructure.”
Does the data center have a negative impact on the environment?
Google has officially announced the goal of sustainably minimizing the impact on the climate and the environment in its cloud services. On the one hand, Google requires electricity that comes from renewable sources if possible in order to minimize its carbon footprint. According to the company, 80 percent of the energy consumed on an annual average comes from CO2-free sources.
The second major environmental issue when operating data centers is the issue of heat. The electricity used to operate computers, network switches and data storage is ultimately converted into heat, which is dissipated using huge fans. The cooling systems in Hanau also work with water. And this water should be obtained as responsibly as possible.
To ensure that the waste heat is not simply released into the environment, Google and the companies EnBW, Evonik Industries and Umicore are examining the possibilities of using the waste heat to supply neighboring buildings in the Wolfgang Industrial Park and thus to save energy.
Economic significance of the cloud business
Google has been working for years to free itself from its dependence on the advertising business on the Internet and to find new sources of revenue. The US company therefore decided to make major investments in Germany in 2021 in order not to leave this lucrative cloud market to the market leaders Amazon AWS and Microsoft or German providers such as Ionos from the United Internet Group. By 2030, investments in Germany are expected to total a good one billion euros.
