Gazprom will spend up to 450 billion rubles to create a data center in Veliky Novgorod

The Gazprom company intends to build a data center with 5 thousand racks in Veliky Novgorod. According to Vedomosti, sources report that the new facility will be commissioned at full capacity in 2028. 99.99% of the shares in the new legal entity Gazprom Mezhregiongaz ECRK belong to Gazprom Mezhregiongaz LLC, and 0.01% belongs to Gazprom GNP Holding LLC.

Profile of a structure with an authorized capital of 10 million rubles. data processing activities and the provision of information placement services are indicated, one of the top managers of Gazprom structures became the general director. According to sources, commissioning could begin as early as 2025. Veliky Novgorod already has the necessary infrastructure, including energy capacity and communication channels from several operators. Novgorod Thermal Power Plant is also operated by Gazprom. The city already has a data center, and Rostelecom intends to build another facility here.

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As reported by Vedomosti with reference to the consulting company DC, representatives of Gazprom requested the development of R&D to create a data center with power supply from electrical networks and using gas generation, but the company refused to participate in the development of a project of “colossal” scale. It is assumed that the data center will be used for the needs of Gazprom itself, but the stated 5 thousand racks are too many for the company, so most likely some will be allocated for cloud services and the needs of third-party customers.

Taking into account the fact that the construction of a data center will cost from 1–1.2 million rubles per 1 kW per rack, based on calculations of an average of 7.5 kW per 5 thousand racks, the budget should be 450 billion rubles. The largest companies are ready to build their own facilities to comply with internal protocols and maintain as complete control as possible over the IT infrastructure. In addition, in the long term it may be cheaper than renting.

However, having your own data centers does not exclude the involvement of third-party platforms and the construction of a hybrid model. For example, in 2023, Gazprom Neft announced the launch, in partnership with VK Cloud, of a cloud platform that provides a virtual infrastructure for collaboration between the company’s developers and its technology partners to create new IT solutions.