Creating an attractive cluster climate for datacenters in Eemshaven. The potential of Eemshaven as cluster area for datacenters compared with the succesful example of the Node Pole
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2017-08-30
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en
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Many different institutions in Groningen perceive the arrival of Google’s datacenter in Eemshaven in Groningen as a revival of regional economic development. Until the announcement, earthquakes, population decline and a stagnating economic development resulted in an unattractive image of Groningen. When Google communicated their establishment in Eemshaven, regional actors expected that other large datacenters would follow in the foreseeable future. Attracting and embedding these relative young and new establishments which are often transnational corporations (TNCs), requires other actions than embedding other businesses or SMEs.
This research investigates which actions local and regional actors should undertake to create an attractive climate for datacenters. In such a climate should the demands of datacenters match local or regional offers and vice versa. The basic idea behind this research is creating economic growth based on local or regional assets and opportunities. In order to gain insight into success factors, The Node Pole has been taken as an example. The arrival of Facebook in this area led to the rise of a strong datacenter cluster.
A combination of different theories led to a conceptual framework in which three key elements are distinguished that are of importance in embedding datacenter companies. The first element is about the impact of physical infrastructure to the embeddedness of datacenters in Groningen. Supply of energy, cable connections and the proximity of a city are part of the physical infrastructure. Intellectual infrastructure focusses on the connection between education and the labour market and its effect on the embeddedness. The third element is about the role of rules and regulations in embedding datacenters in Groningen.
To determine the extent in which these three key elements influence the embeddedness of datacenters in Groningen, eight propositions are designed. The propositions are confirmed or rejected by the outcome of interviews with stakeholders from Groningen and The Node Pole.
It is clear that the proximity of different power resources in Eemshaven is an important element in the embeddedness of Google. Through the various mix of resources, data companies can rely on different sources which creates a very high redundancy. The presence of transatlantic fiber connections in the Eemshaven is also an important element in the physical infrastructure. The embeddedness of datacenters requires an ongoing improvement of these fiber connections. Beside power and fiber connections, the proximity of a city with corresponding facilities and mobility modalities matters for attracting and embedding datacenters.
There is a strong dependency between physical and intellectual infrastructure. The Node Pole shows that a strong physical infrastructure is important for attracting new companies, while the long term establishment conditions are more dependent on a strong intellectual infrastructure. Developing knowledge transfers between Google and local knowledge institutions does not only generate innovation, it also fosters embeddedness. Beside these possible knowledge transfers Groningen has also many other valuable intellectual facilities that strengthen the cluster facilities, like a lectureship, an IT network and research centers.
Generally, public institutions in Groningen agree on the potential for a data cluster in Eemshaven. However, the fragmentation of different governments makes it less easy to stimulate the acquisition of new datacenters. Despite the fact that there is always room for improvements, current laws and regulations in Eemshaven provide enough opportunities to quickly establish new datacenters.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen