New technopark to house Russia’s largest data centre

According to recent statements from senior state officials, a new technopark comprising the largest data centre in Russia will soon be built near Moscow.

The data centre is the key component of a proposed technopark called Istradigital. It has been designed to hold around 40,000 server racks and will measure around 620,000 m². Approximately 75% of the facility’s capacity will be reserved for cloud services, while the remaining 25% will be used for outsourcing.

Alexey Galyuzhin, deputy director of the Department of Digital Economy Projects at the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, said that the successful implementation of this project is part of the state’s plans to increase Russia’s share in the global market of data storage and processing services. Russia currently has a 0.9% share of the market and wants to increase this to 5% by 2024.

Construction of the Istradigital project is said to be under the remit of Aquastroy, a company owned by Russian developer Vladimir Mazur.

It will cost around €1.78 billion to build the digital complex, some €444.1 million of which is said to be coming from foreign investors, with Mazur providing the remaining €1.33 billion from his own funds, investments and loans.

According to Mazur, the technology will also house a state-of-the-art education centre, a congress hall, university complex, research laboratories and a research and development centre.

Work on the first stage of the multifunctional centre is now underway.