Name in original language
Sunet Virtuellt Datacenter
Initiative overview
Sunet, Sweden’s national research and education network, is responsible for providing secure and reliable digital infrastructure to universities, research institutions, and public bodies. To strengthen the resilience of its services, Sunet is establishing a new data centre in northern Sweden under the project known as DC Orion. This development responds to the need for greater redundancy in national digital infrastructure, reducing the risk of disruption from regional outages or other incidents in the Stockholm area where many of Sunet’s existing systems are currently located.
The main objective of the initiative is to ensure continuity of Sunet’s critical services—such as identity management (EduID), storage and archiving, virtual computing environments, media services, and DNS—by hosting them in a geographically distinct location with secure and scalable infrastructure. Locating the facility in the north offers additional benefits, including access to a stable power supply, robust fibre connectivity, and the natural advantages of a cooler climate for sustainable operations.
The project is led by Sunet and has been developed through a detailed planning process, building on earlier feasibility studies. The facility is designed to meet high standards of security and reliability, including redundant power and network connections. Services are being progressively migrated to the new site, with Sunet’s Virtual Datacenter (VDC) now available from DC Orion. This supports both Sunet’s own redundancy needs and the growing demands of Sweden’s research and education communities for high-performance, secure, and flexible digital services.
