Summary
- Castle IT expects to open a 200 sq m, 40 rack facility in Saint-Omer by the end of 2026.
- The site will complement its larger Larçay operation and provide geographic redundancy for customers.
- The smaller regional deployment contrasts with the much larger campus projects gathering around northern France.
Castle IT plans to open a second French data centre in Saint-Omer by the end of the year, extending its regional colocation footprint into Hauts-de-France.
The facility will cover around 200 sq m and provide space for 40 racks. Castle IT has not disclosed an IT power figure for the site.
The Saint-Omer facility is intended to complement the company’s existing operation at Larçay, near Tours, rather than replace it. Castle IT has said the location will give customers a second site within a manageable distance of its established data centre, creating an additional option for backup and geographic resilience.
Castle IT’s Larçay infrastructure covers around 1,300 sq m and the company describes it as equivalent to Tier III+, with redundant electrical, cooling, fire protection, and network systems. The operator has said its model is focused on French hosted infrastructure supplied through a partner and reseller network.
The new site is materially smaller than many of the data centre projects currently being proposed in northern France. That does not make it irrelevant to the regional market. A 40 rack facility serves a different requirement from a hyperscale campus: local businesses and IT providers may value proximity, disaster recovery separation, and access to French operated infrastructure more than very large blocks of capacity.
Geographic redundancy also depends on distance. Two halls within the same metropolitan area can protect against equipment failure but may remain exposed to shared power, fibre, or environmental incidents. A second site in another region provides greater physical separation while remaining close enough for customers and technical teams to operate both locations without treating the backup facility as a remote international deployment.
Saint-Omer also places Castle IT inside a wider northern French market where far larger data centre developments are competing for powered industrial land. Projects around Dunkirk and former heavy industrial locations are being driven by access to grid infrastructure and the availability of sites large enough for hyperscale expansion.
Castle IT’s deployment sits below that level of the market, but the underlying infrastructure requirements remain familiar: resilient electricity supply, cooling, multiple connectivity options, physical security, and enough local technical capability to maintain a facility continuously.
The operator was founded in 2016 and has previously discussed expansion beyond Larçay. The Saint-Omer opening will provide a clearer test of whether its regional model can be replicated at smaller sites without sacrificing operational consistency.
With the new facility due before the end of 2026, the immediate milestones are practical rather than strategic: completing the fit out, connecting the site, commissioning the infrastructure, and bringing the first customer racks into service.
