Digital Realty opens first carrier-neutral centre in Crete

Digital Realty and Schneider Electric have launched a new data centre, HER1, in Heraklion, Crete. This marks an important step in addressing Southern Europe's connectivity and infrastructure needs.

The HER1 Data Center is the first carrier-neutral facility on the island, providing a crucial hub for interconnecting various international, regional, and local subsea cables. This enables cloud, telecommunications, and content delivery networks to serve the surrounding areas better.

HER1 Data Center is intended to serve as a digital gateway that works in conjunction with key markets such as Athens, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, and Tel Aviv. The facility is critical to Digital Realty's Mediterranean data centre platform, aiming to establish Greece as a strategic connectivity hub for Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Schneider Electric provided a turnkey solution from its EcoStruxure Modular Data Center portfolio to overcome challenges at HER1, particularly given the need for accelerated speed-to-market and increased energy efficiency. The centre's remote location also necessitated off-site production, testing, and delivery of components.

The Schneider Electric solution included two fully integrated prefabricated power modules, which contained medium voltage (MV), transformers, low voltage (LV), uninterrupted power supply (UPS) equipment, and air-cooling systems. Additionally, two large-scale, all-in-one data halls were deployed and equipped with power, cooling, and IT systems while using Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure monitoring solution for building and electrical power management systems.

Fabrice Coquio, Senior Vice President of Digital Realty in France, stated, "Digital Realty's substantial investment in our new Heraklion data centre highlights our dedication to establishing the Mediterranean as a global connectivity hub, connecting continents and enabling digital transformation."

"Thanks to our strategic partnership with Schneider Electric, we are accelerating the time to market of this critical project to quickly meet the surging digital traffic demands in the region, while enhancing network resilience and diversity for enterprises and communities alike."

Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President for Secure Power and Data Center Business at Schneider Electric, Europe, commented, "For many years Schneider Electric has partnered with Digital Realty to meet exacting standards for its data centre buildouts globally, and our work together at HER1 demonstrates the massive potential that prefabricated solutions present to meet demanding deployment timeframes, while minimising risk."

"The successful delivery of HER1 represents a major turning point for data centre deployments in Southern Europe, and by establishing this new global connectivity hub in Crete, Digital Realty will connect customers across continents for many years to come."