DATA CENTRES IN ICELAND – COMPETITIVE LOCATION
Cost competitiveness
A benchmarking study by PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium described Iceland as the most competitive location for the operation of data centres. With clean, competitively priced renewable energy, we can offer lower costs for data centres than the USA, the UK and even India. Iceland also has low corporate taxes (18%), highly skilled IT labour at competitive prices, and low land and lease costs.
Managed storage and back-up security services
Iceland is an excellent location for a secondary data centre specialising in storage and disaster recovery. This is a secure and safe location for valuable company data. Our strategic location in the mid-Atlantic makes Iceland a highly desirable place for this type of operation.
Managed hosting for web-based businesses
Hosting and managing e-commerce or web-based businesses from Iceland is highy feasible. A company based here has essentially the same rights to operate within the European Economic Area as a company based anywhere else in the European Union.
Companies can take advantage of low business costs, while private and public companies registered in Iceland are subject to low corporate taxes. Companies meeting certain criteria in trading fish and agricultural products can register as international trading companies and thus benefit from only 5% corporate income tax. This also applies to companies suppying intermediary services.
Accounts and financial records may be kept in a choice of currencies.
Manage financial payment systems and clearing
Iceland’s position midway between Europe and North America can be an advantage as the time difference allows network maintenance and batch processing. Operating a clearing house in Iceland would be an attractive venture for banks and financial institutions with operations in Europe and North America.
The financial services sector in Iceland operates one of the most sophisticated payment systems anywhere in the world. Financial institutions jointly run a central clearing house which allows transfers between bank accounts in real time. Instantaneous transactions are standard in every financial institution in the country.