Opera raises curtain on Poland data center

EUROPE: Opera has signed an agreement with TeliaSonera International Carrier to provide Opera with co-location in establishing a new data center in Poland.

As Opera's fourth data center worldwide, the facility will operate as the server hub for Opera Mini, allowing the mobile browser to expand its network in Europe.

By relieving other servers of the processing responsibilities, Opera's Poland-based servers will enable significantly faster page downloads for users, it claims in a press release.

Poland was chosen as the location for the data center due to its geographical advantages. In countries such as Poland, Russia and Ukraine, Opera Mini penetration is at its highest. By placing servers in close proximity to such a large customer base, Opera is better able to deliver a high-speed, mobile-Internet experience. Eventually, all customers in Central and Eastern Europe will be connected through Opera's Polish servers, as traffic will gradually be redirected to optimize browsing speeds.

"In order to keep up with Opera Mini's rapid growth rate, we needed to open a new hosting center in Europe," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Having this new data center as part of our global network services will enable us to bring Opera Mini to even more users. It will considerably improve our capacity to deliver the Internet on any device, anytime, anywhere."

"By working together, Opera's new server park in our site enables faster browsing by improving latency for customers," said Peter Arke, Vice President and Head of Wholesale Sales Norway, Denmark, Finland&Baltics TeliaSonera International Carrier. "Our goal is to ensure ease of communication, and by working with Opera, we are committing more resources to European mobile customers who want a better and faster way to access online content on-the-go."