A report published by the Dutch Datacenter Association (DDA), produced in collaboration with independent research agency Pb7 Research, has found that the overall economic effect of multi-tenant data centers accounted for upwards of  €1 billion ($1,055 billion) of the Dutch GDP in 2016.

The report considered all of the effects of the colocation market, ergo the direct (data center core business), indirect (construction companies, equipment for power and cooling equipment, energy and water) and induced (employees spending money in the economy) factors.

The DDA loves data centers, do you?

The study attempted to measure the full impact of colocation data centers on the economy, looking at GDP contribution, employment, and contribution to taxes such as VAT income taxes, local taxes, and social contributions.

The estimate does not include other industries also dependent on digital products and services, and therefore understates the total economic impact of multi-tenant data centers: in 2016, the Internet economy as a whole was found to have accounted for 7.7 percent of Dutch GDP, according to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics. 

Managing director of the DDA, Stijn Grove, states that although the business of data centers is rather more capital intensive than it is labor intensive, “data centers provide strong multiplier effects for the economy as a whole and it would not be farfetched to say that they are absolutely vital to all businesses and organizations that are using digital technology in one way or the other.”