Paris and London, 16 April 2010 - The 6th annual Data Centres Europe conference takes place next week in Sophia Antipolis, near Nice, France, which has representatives of more than 30 countries in what will be the largest international sector event in the region (www.datacentres.com/dce). The event patron is APC by Schneider Electric.

Attended by 500 executives from the data centre sector, the conference which will be opened by M Christian Estrosi, Minister for Industry, France, will include a special focus on environmental sustainability, security, and operational excellence,  enterprise customers of data centres and their evolving outsourcing needs, emerging private clouds, new technologies and market shift impact across the sector.

“In two days packed with content, this outstanding international event will help to set the green agenda for the year ahead, and will be addressed by some of the world’s leading experts in data centre business operations, technologies, and energy efficiency solutions,” commented Philip Low, managing director of BroadGroup, the event researchers and organizers.

The event will also see the launch of a new report by the France for Datacenters group, the findings of which reveal many indicators that point to France as being the most advantageous country for IT hosting.

Highlights of a new BroadGroup report that assesses Private Cloud and the impact on data centres will also be presented at the conference.

It will also feature special workshops including a Data Centre Clinic conducted by global consulting firm Arup, Data Centres and the implementation of the European Code of Conduct, and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) by the newly launched Data Centre Institute.

In addition the prestigious Data Centres Europe Annual Awards will be announced at a gala dinner. With an international judging panel, the awards continue to define best in breed benchmarks for service quality, management excellence and technical achievement for the European Data Centre industry. The Best European Green Initiative Award will be presented by Mr John Trucillo, Chairman of the Board and President, The Green Grid, and the Outstanding Contribution to the Data Centre Industry Innovation and Education will be presented by Mr Jonathan Heap, managing director of Data Centre News Search.

The event is supported by more than 30 sponsors, and will host an industry exhibition, gala reception, annual Awards gala dinner, specialist workshops and provide a unique platform for data centre executives to network profitably with international peers.