The Data Centre Risk Index (DCRI) has been published for 2013. Companies looking for IT business continuity may have to choose between being the safest or the greenest when it comes to installing their data centres. Overall, the worldwide winner is the United States. In Europe, the top country is the United Kingdom. The UK is also second worldwide, but there is a significant gap between first (US) and second (UK) place in terms of comparative risk. Other results include Hong Kong maintaining its position as the place in Asia with the least risk for constructing a data centre. However, at least one mega-network company in the US chose to go outside both the UK and the US to a rather different, greener location.
Facebook, the ‘fifth biggest nation in the world’ (if you compare the number of users with country populations) chose Sweden as its base, and so did a number of other technology leaders. For the land that brought you the smorgasbord, Volvos and IKEA, the attractions for data centres (rewarded with a leap up the index to worldwide third place) include its natural cooling facilities and ecological power supplies. Companies choosing Sweden for their IT business continuity can reduce their carbon footprint, and the same is also true of other Nordic countries like Norway, Finland and Iceland.
Where the Nordics score less highly is in international connectivity. To consolidate their current placings in the Data centre Risk Index and to be sure of appearing in the top 10 next time round, these countries may need to make further investments in this area. If they can do this, then their hydroelectricity and geothermal power, their political stability and their relative protection from natural disasters can all contribute to make them strong contenders for the top business continuity rankings – perhaps even becoming the greenest and the safest at the same time.