When you think about cloud infrastructure (i.e. data centers) in Europe, who comes to mind? AWS? Microsoft? Regional players like Deutsche Telekom or Orange? If you’re a big cloud nerd, maybe you even said OVHcloud. But there’s one more you should have your eye on: nLighten.
Founded in 2021, nLighten is backed by $500 million in funding from private equity firm I Squared Capital, which has also invested in Asian data center company BDx and Latin America’s KIO Networks (and, for our broadband readers, Ezee Fiber in the U.S.) Steered by ex-Equinix execs, nLighten made its public debut last year, scooping up 10 edge data centers in Germany from its I Squared sister, EXA Infrastructure. But that was just the beginning.
In 2023, nLighten made three more acquisitions, expanding its footprint to France, the U.K. and the Netherlands. And just this week it inked another deal with EXA, this time picking up seven data centers sprinkled across Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.
All told, an nLighten representative told Fierce Network it now has 34 data centers located in seven countries. That spread is intentional.
“Our mission is to establish a leading pan-European edge data center platform,” the representative said. “We differentiate ourselves by our focus on edge data centers, rather than large, centralized facilities like those of hyperscalers. Our strategy revolves around being close to our customers, ensuring minimal latency and physical proximity to the data center.”
Its footprint is already enough to give hyperscalers a run for their money.
AWS, for instance, has a total of nine live and planned cloud regions scattered across Europe, each of which has three availability zones supported by at least one data center. That would imply it has at least 27 data centers in Europe (if not more).
Microsoft, meanwhile, has cloud regions in 10 European countries. Again, each of these comes with three availability zones which in turn are each supported by at least one data center.
This year, nLighten is focused on “bolstering our presence in existing European markets while exploring new ones.” But that said, it’s not looking to build new facilities.
That’s because nLighten is heavily focused on sustainability and environmental responsibility, the rep said. In addition to utilizing data centers that already exist, the company is “committed to integrating our data centers with local energy infrastructure, contributing positively to the community and aligning with our sustainability goals.”
There’s good reason why nLighten and the hyperscalers are focusing on fleshing out their European cloud coverage.
According to data from Statista, the European cloud computing market is expected to grow from approximately $119.5 (€110.3 billion) in 2023 to an estimated $212.7 (€196.3 billion) in 2028. The largest chunk of that 2028 figure ($96.7 billion or €89.3 billion) will be spent on software-as-a-service, though platform-as-a-service will account for $63.2 billion (€58.3 billion) and infrastructure-as-a-service $52.8 billion (€48.7 billion).