Following Facebook's announcement to build a data centre at the edge of the Arctic Circle in Lulea, Sweden, 10 Swedish regions joining efforts to attract more data centre dollars-- launching a promotion tour around Silicon Valley in the process.
The "hunt" for IT companies (named the Swedish Data Centre Initiative) willing to move to the Arctic has support from the Swedish government, via the Invest Sweden agency.
Nordic countries are particularly attractive for data centre locations-- not only for "natural" server cooling, low electricity prices and plenty of developable land, but also for proximity to the Russian market. Sweden also offers fairly low rates for both dark fibre and corporate internet.
Last September Google also opened a server hall up North, in Hamina, Finland, inside what was once a paper mill.
