08.05.2019
TAALERI PLC PRESS RELEASE 8 May 2019 AT 10:00 EET
Taaleri’s associated company Ficolo invests over EUR 50 million in building a Cloud Delivery Center, making the company the largest domestic player in the market
The data center and cloud delivery company Ficolo Oy buys a data center in Vantaa and will make a major investment to expand it into a modern Cloud Delivery Center. The total investment amounts to over 50 million euros, most of which will be used during the first 12 months. The investment will take Ficolo’s business to a new level, place the Helsinki metropolitan area at the forefront of the data center industry in Europe, and improve Finland’s competitiveness as a provider of next-generation IoT and Industrial Internet solutions.
Ficolo and Fujitsu have signed a cooperation agreement as part of the transaction. The agreement will not affect Fujitsu’s data center services or customer relationships.
With the investment, Ficolo will become one of the leading actors in the Finnish data center market and the only Finnish-owned company of this size. The new center will be marketed to IT service providers, SaaS companies and international companies who either need colocation space for their servers or server space for their cloud services.
“Ficolo will now be able to work better as a partner for Finnish companies looking for a Finnish-owned data center, to act as a regional center for Asian companies to be established in Europe, and to act as a local data center for American companies already established in Europe. Our goal is to become the market leader in our field in Finland, and our strong domestic ownership provides a good basis for that,” says Seppo Ihalainen, the CEO of Ficolo.
Megatrends are increasing the demand for a state-of-the-art Cloud Delivery Center. First of all, the Industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, autonomous equipment and all related data processing require local data centers. Secondly, companies are looking for better options for providing their cloud services to customers: Ficolo provides private cloud, multi-cloud and decentralised hybrid cloud solutions. These combine the economies of scale of global cloud platforms with premium-level cloud platforms that account for the specific needs of digital transformation.
“The third trend that increases the demand for our services is geo-economic. Where data is located, and where and how digital services are produced, are becoming critically important as the amount of data continues to grow. Finland and Europe must be able to provide data and cloud delivery centers for companies operating in the area that are reliable, cost-effective and based on renewable energy. State-of-the-art data and cloud services are crucial for the functioning, competitiveness and growth of our society,” says Ihalainen.
Ficolo decided on the purchase and expansion of the data center after carefully exploring several options across the metropolitan area. The data center situated in Vantaa, Finland proved to be ideal in terms of location, security, electricity supply, and heat recovery possibilities. In the expansion of the data center, Ficolo will pay particular attention to the specific requirements of cloud services, physical and digital security, high-speed connections, energy efficiency, centralised hybrid cloud management, and various life-cycle services.
About Ficolo
Ficolo, founded in 2011, is a data center and cloud Delivery Company specialised in Cloud Engineering services. Ficolo already runs two data centers, The Rock in Pori and The Deck in Tampere. The next-generation Cloud Delivery Center under construction will be called The Air. Ficolo also provides cloud and data center connectivity services and a centralised hybrid cloud management solution.
Ficolo helps its customers transform their business model into a cloud-based business model; the company offers all service components required to provide global cloud services, from colocation space to connectivity and state-of-the-art security services. Ficolo uses only renewable energy.
Ficolo is owned by Taaleri (approx. 43%), Pontos (approx. 43%), and the company’s management and board (approx. 14%).
Taaleri Plc.
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For more information, please contact:
CEO Seppo Ihalainen, Ficolo Oy, tel. 358 44 774 4300, seppo.ihalainen@ficolo.com
Investment Director Pekka Samuelsson, Taaleri Investments Ltd, 358 50 523 5834, pekka.samuelsson@taaleri.com
Taaleri in brief
Taaleri is a Finnish financial service company, whose parent company Taaleri Plc is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki's, Finland, main market. The Taaleri Group comprises three business areas: Wealth Management, Financing, and Energy. In addition, the Group makes investments from its own balance sheet.
At the end of 2018, Taaleri had assets under management totalling EUR 5.7 billion and 5,400 wealth management customers. Taaleri Plc has some 4,100 shareholders. Taaleri’s operations are supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.
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Sophie Jolly, Head of Communications and IR, sophie.jolly@taaleri.com, tel. 358 40 828 7317