Dietzenbach, a German town of roughly 35,000 people, has become a focal point in the global race to host massive computing capacity. Its proximity to Frankfurt—about 12 kilometers away, and home to the world-leading internet exchange DE-CIX—helped attract billions of dollars in investment from US tech firms building high-performance data centers. The greater Frankfurt region alone already hosts dozens of facilities and is one of Europe’s most important hubs for internet traffic.
Why data centers matter
Data centers are the physical backbone of the modern internet. They house the servers that store and process the enormous streams of data generated by cloud services, streaming, online banking, logistics, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. At peak times DE-CIX Frankfurt handles more than 17 terabits per second of traffic—roughly the bandwidth needed if millions of people streamed high-definition video at once. There are roughly 12,000 data center complexes worldwide and many more under construction to meet explosive demand.
Because so many essential services depend on them, data centers are treated as critical infrastructure in countries like Germany. The German federal government’s March 2026 Data Center Strategy underscores their strategic importance: it aims to double national capacity by 2030 and to lessen dependence on non‑European providers.
Growing vulnerability
The physical and digital centrality of data centers makes them tempting targets. Cyberattacks have surged in recent years; in January 2026 the German Federal Bank reported more than 5,000 attacks per minute against its own IT systems. While modern facilities typically include strong cybersecurity, surveillance and perimeter defenses, risks remain—both virtual and physical.
Physical incidents have proven damaging: a March 2021 fire at a major data center in Strasbourg knocked around 3.6 million websites offline and permanently destroyed some customer data because backups were kept at the same location. Beyond accidents, military and state‑sponsored actors have targeted IT infrastructure in conflicts. During the war in Ukraine, strikes on IT systems have aimed to disrupt military coordination and civilian services. In the Gulf region, attacks on data centers belonging to major cloud providers disrupted banking, payments and other critical systems. After such incidents, debates intensified about protecting data centers with measures including air defense.
Strategic risk also surfaced when state actors publicly identified potential targets; in one case a list of up to 30 facilities linked to foreign tech companies and research organizations appeared on social media, heightening security concerns for operators and governments alike.
Local pushback and environmental concerns
Locating new data centers is not just a technical or strategic decision; it is increasingly a political and environmental one. Large data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and water, and cooling needs produce heat that must be managed. Their hardware turnover generates growing quantities of electronic waste as compute racks are frequently upgraded to keep pace with demand. Residents and environmental groups have raised concerns about resource use, emissions tied to power sources, and the long-term handling of e‑waste.
Another common complaint is that these facilities create relatively few local jobs: a campus covering tens of thousands of square meters may employ fewer than a hundred people on site. The economic boost for host regions is often indirect, possibly encouraging other tech businesses to cluster nearby, but not always delivering the direct employment gains communities expect.
These tensions have produced protests and political pushback worldwide. Environmental activists in Chile successfully blocked an AI-focused data center project in 2024. In the U.S., a state legislature voted in April 2026 to temporarily ban new data centers above 20 megawatts over environmental and economic concerns; the governor vetoed the measure. In Germany, plans have also stalled in some places: a proposed €2.5 billion data center near Gross‑Gerau was rejected by a local council that judged the project too large and too uncertain in its environmental and social impacts, while construction moved forward in other nearby towns.
What’s next
Operators, researchers and policymakers face a dual challenge: scale up infrastructure fast enough to meet soaring demand while reducing environmental impacts and raising security standards. Efforts include improving energy efficiency, capturing and reusing waste heat, shifting to renewable power, and hardening facilities against cyber and physical attacks. Governments are also exploring regulations and strategic investments to ensure resilience, reduce dependence on external providers, and balance local concerns.
Data centers will only become more indispensable as AI, cloud computing and digital services expand. That makes it critical to manage their risks—cyber, physical, environmental and social—so that these hubs can continue to support modern economies without becoming points of catastrophic failure or local conflict.