Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, has announced the activation of a new Point of Presence (PoP) at Aruba’s Hyper Cloud Data Centre in Rome. This move aims to bolster Rome’s status as a global connectivity hub linking Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
The collaboration between Sparkle and Aruba boosts the connectivity provided by BlueMed, Sparkle’s latest cable. BlueMed connects several key locations, including France, Greece, Israel, and Italy, with several important landings in Rome, Genoa, Palermo, and Golfo Aranci. The BlueMed cable is part of the broader Blue & Raman Submarine Cable Systems project, created in partnership with Google and other operators. This initiative aims to establish a new digital infrastructure connecting Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, extending as far as India. The project is part of the IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor), agreed upon during the G20 summit in September 2023.
The BlueMed cable system, designed with an “open cable system” and “open landing station” architecture, promotes maximum accessibility for other operators and supports the development of robust internet traffic ecosystems. It boasts four fiber pairs with a capacity exceeding 25 Terabits per second (Tbps) per pair, facilitating high-speed, high-performance international connections from Rome to Sparkle’s global destinations.
Sparkle’s new PoP was established at Aruba’s Hyper Cloud Data Centre (IT4), located at the Tecnopolo Tiburtino. This technology campus houses over 150 companies from sectors like aerospace and ICT. The campus spans 74,000 m² and, at full capacity, will feature five independent data centres providing a total of 30 MW of IT power. The first data centre (DC-A) has already received ANSI/TIA Rating 4 certification. Designed with resilience and infrastructure quality in mind, the new facility will utilize renewable energy sources, advanced cooling systems, and efficient equipment.
Enrico Bagnasco, CEO of Sparkle, stated, “With the activation of the new PoP integrated with BlueMed, we intend to respond to the needs of companies and operators that require large international interconnection capacities. We bring Rome closer to the world’s major connectivity exchange points thanks to a unique, low-latency route to Marseille and Palermo, integrated with the main submarine cables crossing the Mediterranean and other destinations in Sparkle’s global network.”
Stefano Cecconi, CEO of Aruba, added, “We share with Sparkle the aim of serving companies and operators, that need large capacities, with not only connectivity but also space and power within state-of-the-art data centres that are large enough to support even the most ambitious growth plans. Being able to host a Sparkle PoP, with the availability of BlueMed, is an important building block in the consolidation of our data centres as strategic assets at a national and European level, and is perfectly in line with our carrier neutral philosophy.”
