Castle IT announced the opening of its second colocation facility in Saint-Omer, France.

French colocation provider Castle IT is opening a second data center, with the new facility in Saint-Omer, a city in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, expected to open by year-end.

The facility will span 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) and complement Castle IT's existing larger site in Larçay, near Tours. The company has not disclosed IT capacity for the new location.

Castle IT founder Josué Depeux told local news outlet La Nouvelle République that the data center would enable customers "to have a second backup solution, which is not too far from Larçay." He added: "We are targeting customers in the Hauts-de-France region. We will have 40 racks there. In Larçay, we have 264."

Founded in 2016, Castle IT positions itself as providing a sovereign French IT environment to its clients. The company announced plans in 2022 for two additional data centers in France, though these have not materialized.

Northern France is becoming an increasingly active market for data center development, with several large campuses in planning stages, capitalizing on brownfield industrial sites already equipped with power infrastructure. Escudain, where Data4 is planning a 700MW campus, and Dunkirk are among cities in the region attracting new data center investment.