In order to meet the growing demand for IT services, Orange has built a 16,000 m² data center in Val-de-Reuil, France, including 5,000 m² of computer room space. Known as ‘Normandy’, it will be used to host data and services for Orange business customers and the general public, to accelerate the development of Orange’s cloud computing offers and to support the Group’s own IT transformation.
It completes the worldwide infrastructure for Orange data centers, which now includes 16 sites in France and more than 50 around the world, representing an investment of more than 100 million euros.
This new generation data center is an innovative, energy efficient, resilient and highly- secure building that will help to meet the growing demand for hosted data and accelerate the deployment of the cloud computing architectures of tomorrow.
The region of Normandy was chosen to host the new data center because it offers a number of advantages, including the ideal weather conditions for free cooling, a technology that helps to optimize energy consumption in data centers. It uses cool ambient air to cool the computer equipment for 11 months out of the year, thereby reducing the use of artificial air-conditioning for more than 80% of the year.
This data center is the biggest in France to use free cooling. Orange believes that the savings made at the Val-de-Reuil site equates to the annual domestic electricity consumption of a town of about 30,000 people. The data center, certified to the French High Environmental Quality (HQE®) Standard, is an illustration of the efforts made by Orange to reduce its impact on the environment as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program.
The growth of data traffic on the networks and the development of cloud computing over the coming years make this powerful data center a project with a future for Orange and for its customers.
Have a tour of the data center in pictures.