Digital infrastructures attract digital services, and digital services attract more infrastructures. This system generates a virtuous multiplying circle in which Barcelona wants to play a prominent role, as analyst Fernando Maldonado defends. The Catalan capital is already moving in that direction, and expects the data centers planned in the city and its surroundings to generate an impact on GDP of 7,235 million euros by 2025. This figure takes into account a direct impact of 3,078 million, together with an indirect impact of 2,534, and an induced impact of 1,623 million.
This is confirmed by the report Barcelona, digital port of the Mediterranean, by Digital Realty and De-Cix, prepared by the analysis firm Foundry with the support of the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona. The document, presented by Maldonado, states that the installed capacity in the Barcelona area will increase from a power of 49 MW to 173 MW by 2025, based on planned investments, which amount to 1,047 million euros. This announced investment, which involves about fifteen projects, will put an end to a "historical deficit of data centers and close a digital infrastructure gap" that existed until now in Barcelona, according to Maldonado.
The arrival of submarine cables at the Barcelona Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Sant Adrià two years ago boosted the capacity to attract talent and foreign investment, and placed the Catalan capital on the global interconnection map. However, for Barcelona to consolidate itself as a digital port of the Mediterranean and become a hub for data and digital services exchange, the report determines that it is necessary to develop an ecosystem of data centers, neutral points, cloud service providers, communication networks, and system integrators that is now under construction.
These data centers not only interconnect networks and provide digital services, but also generate wealth and a multiplier effect, and that is that for every euro invested, seven are generated. In addition, these data centers planned in the metropolitan area create 2,200 jobs, with 1,030 linked to the construction phase and 713 in their operation. "It is not the industry that creates the most jobs, but it is quality employment aimed at highly demanded profiles," Maldonado pointed out.
For Barcelona to position itself as the digital port of the Mediterranean, the report highlights that administrations must take steps in this direction, such as the simplification of procedures for the promotion of data centers, and the review of the electricity grid planning to guarantee an efficient and reliable supply. "The electrical factor is an element that can limit digital growth," warned Robert Assink, general director of Digital Realty in Spain, who is finalizing the launch of a data center also in Sant Adrià del Besòs.
This planning is necessary for Barcelona to emerge as key in this international digital interconnection ecosystem. Its role as a hub for technological and digital entrepreneurship and its ability to attract talent and investments facilitates this path. And, as the president of the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona in Barcelonès Nord, Vicenç Hernández, recalled, the city is among the top 5 emerging ecosystems in the world, and is the eighth worldwide city to work abroad: "Barcelona is and will be the engine of Europe's future."
Sant Adrià claims its leading role in this digital port, as it hosts the CLS and investments such as Digital Realty'sAnd the city and its surroundings are called to play a relevant role in the interconnection ecosystem of Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, according to Theresa Bobis, Director of De-Cix in Southern Europe. The company has three data exchange points in the Iberian Peninsula, located in Madrid and Lisbon, in addition to Barcelona. All three are included in the company's 13, which connect 470 exchange networks. The company converges in the ecosystem with Digital Realty, which has a global network of data centers, including the future one in Sant Adrià.
With the arrival of investments of this type and with the CLS, the metropolitan municipality wants to play a leading role in this digital port, as its mayor, Filo Cañete, has defended. "Sant Adrià is still the entry port for all this interconnection with the rest of the world", she claimed. Cañete recalled that both the CLS and the new Digital Realty center will be located near the Tres Xemeneies site, "that great icon that is being transformed with the aim of housing a digital and video game hub". This hub, together with the data centers, are pieces within a network of intertwined connections and networks among which Barcelona and its metropolis aim to stand out, in their desire to consolidate themselves as an innovation hub at an international level.