Frankfurt am Main experiences boom in new data centers from the United States

Frankfurt am Main has recently experienced an explosion of new data centers from U.S.-based
companies beginning late last year through the first quarter of 2015. These developments have
further established the city of Frankfurt as the leading data center hub in Germany and will help
continue attracting investors to its exceptional (digital) infrastructure.

Frankfurt leads in data center density and connectivity to central internet hubs throughout
Germany and Europe. And the/this ongoing relocation of data and applications to external cloud
provider infrastructures make Frankfurt the preeminent location for cloud computing in Europe.

Frankfurt is Germany's primary data node with the DE-CIX Frankfurt (Deutscher Commercial
Internet Exchange), the largest Internet exchange point world-wide. DE-CIX handles about 90%
of all domestic and 35% of all European internet traffic. The city also has 100,000 kilometers of
fiber optic cables, 600 networked telecommunications companies.

In late 2014 Amazon Web Services (AWS) opened a data center in Frankfurt followed by Oracle
and Vmware. In January 2015, IBM announced the opening of its first cloud data center with
SoftLayer in Germany as part of its US$1.2 billion investment to expand its global cloud footprint
Also joining the community of U.S. cloud service companies in Frankfurt in 2015, to date, are
Colorado-based IQnavigator, Inc., plus four California-based companies, Host Virtual, Inc.,
Veeva Systems, Inc., Whitehat Security Inc. and Zadara Storage.

The State of Hessen has had much success with establishing data centers in Frankfurt for U.S.
companies. Following the global trend of keeping their data stored near their primary corporate
location, these companies can easily comply with German data protection laws which include
the most stringent data privacy regulations in the European Union.

According a focused analysis of 2015 data center investment into Frankfurt in DCDi's latest
publication, Germany's Data Center Market on the International Stage, cites that investments in
this sector are projected to grow faster than spending in other European Centers and at about
the same rate as outside of Europe. It is estimated that Frankfurt’s data center investments will
inceas 9.5% in 2015, above the anticipated growth for Amsterdam at 7.6%and Paris at 6.1%.

Hessen’s ICT sector contributes USD 23.4 billion to the state’s entire GDP with 10,300
companies and 105,000 employees. In addition six of the top 25 software companies and nine
of the top 25 IT service companies in Germany are headquartered in Hessen. No other
European region has more competencies in the software and ICT sector. The association,
Digital Hub FrankfurtRheinMain e.V. helps Frankfurt and the Rhein-Main region to remain
competetive with their impressive promotion of its digital infrastructure. (www.digitalhub-frm.de)

Hessen will welcome Salesforce with a new data center in Frankfurt (partnership with T-
Systems) this month and also California-based Zendesk, which has announced its plans to
open a data center in Frankfurt during the second quarter of 2015. Hessen Trade & Invest
GmbH, looks forward to supporting these companies and keeping potential investors abreast of
this exciting trend.