Automated cloud computing and IaaS provider SingleHop will be pond-hopping from Chicago to Amsterdam in an effort to expand its European footprint. Today, the company announced plans to open a 2,000-server data center facility in Amsterdam (because where else would you open a data center in Europe?).

According to SingleHop, the data center will help to meet the demand it’s seeing for dedicated cloud infrastructure from VARs, hosting providers and SMBs in Europe. Based on the size of the data center, which does not currently have an official grand opening date, the new facility will expand SingleHop’s server capacity by 20 percent.

More interesting than a new data center, though, is what it will mean to SingleHop and its partners and customers.

“This European data center solidifies our commitment to building a truly global network,” said Andy Pace, SingleHop COO, in a prepared statement.

It’s a significant expansion that will give SingleHop a strong presence within Europe, rather than serving it from afar. The cloud provider plans to replicate its entire technology platform found at its U.S. data center locations at the new Amsterdam facility. That includes its security features, which include biometric physical access controls, individually locking cabinets and 24-hour security. SingleHop currently operates data centers in Chicago and Phoenix.

Choice in geographic location for storing data has become critically important to a lot of businesses and governments in recent years, and having the choice to store data within the United States or in the Netherlands will give customers on both sides of the Atlantic some measure of choice.

SingleHop is currently trying to entice customers or potential customers to get in on the ground floor before the data center officially opens. It has launched an early-bird pre-sale promotion for the Amsterdam data center in which buyers will get twice the RAM and bandwidth allocations and 10 percent off base pricing for the first six months.