Discredited on most occasions, madness leads to exalting great works. Goya or Van Gogh would not have been able to paint some of their great masterpieces if they had been completely sane. Neither Beethoven or Lou Reed would have been able to compose much of their music nor would Virginia Wolf or Dostoyevsky have been able to write their works if it were not for their mental states, whether permanent or transitory. And madness was what must have invaded at one point the heads of Roberto Beitia and Jon Arberas, at the time, president and general director of Sarenet, to believe that an abandoned and vandalized building to which not even the squatters paid attention was a good place to build a data center.
It cost 20 million euros to rebuild that dilapidated building and turn it into the company’s headquarters and the new data center. That is to say, the sale not only affected the choice of the building, but also the investment since it represented the largest made by Sarenet in its 30 years of history.
It may seem very crazy, but reality has shown that these disorders are often the starting point to carry out something very big. And that is what Sarenet has done. If you look at it coldly, the idea was not so far-fetched. The dilapidated building had a great advantage over other locations: it is located in the Derio Communications Hub in the Euskadi Technology Park, one of the main connectivity nodes in northern Spain with direct access to international fiber optic cables.
The new infrastructure has an installed electrical power of 3 megawatts (MW) and the capacity to house up to 340 cabinets or racks. With a guaranteed availability of more than 99.98%, the complex’s service level is comparable to the demanding metrics of a Tier III standard data center, ensuring optimal support for operational environments and the deployment of critical services.
Next-generation sustainability and efficiency
Designed with the objective of obtaining LEED Gold environmental certification, the center integrates technological innovations aimed at minimizing environmental impact. Of note, for example, is the incorporation of a photovoltaic plant for self-consumption and intelligent refrigeration systems through free cooling, which take advantage of the thermal conditions of the outside air to cool the systems naturally.
Regarding hardware, the latest generation servers mount specific processors to offer high performance ratios with the lowest possible consumption, supporting the operator’s commitment to the objectives of the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact (CNDCP), the European initiative for sectoral climate neutrality.
As Roberto Beitia explained at the inauguration, the new Sarenet complex seeks to guarantee that the sensitive information of its clients remains under direct management and comprehensive control, reducing dependence on third parties. With this, the Basque company aims to adapt to the growing demands of companies that require strict guarantees in terms of regulatory compliance and digital sovereignty on European soil.
But, the facility will not only provide basic hosting, but also critical network capabilities: dynamic segmentation, advanced protection against denial of service (DDoS) attacks and managed cybersecurity solutions to strengthen the technological resilience of organizations in the face of crisis scenarios.
Jon Arberas, general director of Sarenet, highlighted that “this initiative reinforces our ability to offer SMEs a comprehensive technological proposal that combines connectivity, infrastructure hosting, cybersecurity and specialized engineering services. This approach allows small and medium-sized companies to access advanced and innovative technologies with the support of close and specialized technical support.” Likewise, Arberas has valued the fact of having its own human team for management, which provides “greater control over quality and the flexibility necessary to adapt to the evolution of the market.”
AI with a business focus
In the field of Artificial Intelligence, the company has established its position by distancing itself from the large generalist models that require macroinfrastructures. The new data center is optimized to host AI projects applied to specific business needs, in order to solve the current implementation gap and automate processes accurately and reliably. All this ensuring data privacy under the regulatory umbrella of the European Union.
