(1) Ambient temperature is not very important. In a data center, you want to cool large arrays of small machines -- for that purpose, whether it's cold or hot outside the building doesn't matter very much. The 10-degree difference in outside air temperature is basically irrelevant you're trying to stop components from overheating.
(2) If you want places that are substantially colder, then you're looking at places that are far more "off-grid" i.e. remote. That may create substantial infrastructural difficulties (internet access, hardware supply, electrical supply, etc.). There's a reason why Google hasn't put all their datacenters on Antarctica.
(3) Denmark and Ireland already have good environmentally sustainable energy sources in place, more so than many other alternative locations. This move is about environmental policy.
Well, one of the big advantages of Ireland is that it's the coldest country in Europe with a decent amount of transatlantic fibre running by its coast, and it has pretty stable temperatures.
Ambient temperature can be very useful if you're building a datacentre. I work for the largest hosting provider in Ireland, and our new datacentre uses the temperature differential between the inside of our pods and the outside air to do energy recovery and cooling, and it's pretty effective . I'm a developer, so I don't have all the details, but I'll ask our CTO later for the details, if I've time.
> Well, one of the big advantages of Ireland is that it's the coldest country in Europe [...]
Perhaps you are confusing Ireland with Iceland? (seems improbable since you work in Ireland) Even then, Finland is colder than either of them although its coldest parts are not so easily accessible.
Coldest country with transatlantic fibre running by its coast... though a fibre running by a coast is not good in itself, you actually need to terminate the fibre in your country.
(Like at my home, the council built a fibre to a nearby facility, but I can't plug into a fibre as it passes the house on the nearby street, underground...)
> Well, one of the big advantages of Ireland is that it's the coldest country in Europe with a decent amount of transatlantic fibre running by its coast
(1) Ambient temperature is not very important. In a data center, you want to cool large arrays of small machines -- for that purpose, whether it's cold or hot outside the building doesn't matter very much. The 10-degree difference in outside air temperature is basically irrelevant you're trying to stop components from overheating.
(2) If you want places that are substantially colder, then you're looking at places that are far more "off-grid" i.e. remote. That may create substantial infrastructural difficulties (internet access, hardware supply, electrical supply, etc.). There's a reason why Google hasn't put all their datacenters on Antarctica.
(3) Denmark and Ireland already have good environmentally sustainable energy sources in place, more so than many other alternative locations. This move is about environmental policy.