Digital Realty & Schneider Electric collaborate on HER1 in Crete, establishing a new digital gateway for Southern Europe and boosting interconnectivity
Today marks the launch of HER1, a new data centre facility by Digital Realty that uses Schneider Electric’s prefabricated data centre solutions.
Based in Heraklion, Crete to establish a new digital gateway for Southern Europe, the work at HER1 seeks to reduce connectivity and infrastructure gaps within the region and enable the interconnection of international, regional and local subsea cables to better serve EMEA regions.
Using Schneider Electric’s prefabricated data centre solutions, Digital Realty hopes to meet the challenges of accelerating time-to-market and remote deployment within just 12 months, while adhering to strict resiliency and energy efficiency standards.
“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,” shares Fabrice Coquio, SVP Digital Realty in France, upon the launch.
About HER1, an interconnectivity launchpad
Digital Realty hopes that HER1 will play a critical role in reducing Southern Europe’s digital connectivity and infrastructure gap. This will be achieved by enabling the interconnection of international, regional and local subsea cables, empowering cloud, telco and content delivery networks (CDNs) to better serve the surrounding regions.
As the first carrier-neutral facility on the island, HER one will work in tandem with fast-growing markets, including Athens, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome and Tel Aviv.
Digital Realty platform
5,000+ customers
320+ data centres
25+ countries
6 continents
HER1 forms a central part of Digital Realty’s Mediterranean data centre platform and also works to establish Greece as a strategic connectivity hub for Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
As a global leader in energy management and automation, Schneider Electric has partnered with Digital Realty to deliver this new data centre.
Following a successful prefabricated data centre deployment at its Marseille 2 (MRS2) facility, Digital Realty leveraged a turnkey Tier III solution from Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Modular Data Center portfolio to overcome a host of challenges at HER1. They included requirements for accelerated speed-to-market with a target to become operational within twelve months – a record time – increased levels of energy efficiency and off-site production, testing and delivery due to HER1’s remote location in Crete.
To achieve this, Schneider Electric provided a purpose-built solution including two, fully integrated, prefabricated power modules containing MV, transformers, LV, UPS equipment and air-cooling systems.
The company also deployed two large-scale all-in-one Data Halls containing power, cooling and IT solutions that utilise its Exostruxure monitoring solution for buildings management and electrical power management systems (EPMS).
“Our HER1 data centre marks a key milestone in enhancing digital infrastructure across the region.”
Andy Power, CEO at Digital Realty
Schneider Electric also assisted Digital Realty by providing the complete spectrum of data centre services, from design and build, to production, assembly and security services. This enabled Digital Realty’s HER1 facility to meet its demanding deployment timeframes, in addition to minimising the risk of failures during its on-site installation.
Fabrice adds: “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.”
Creating a ‘gateway’ for data
HER1 will serve as the first carrier-neutral facility in Crete and has the intention to better connect the Mediterranean by enabling international and regional subsea cables to interconnect. These cables serve more than 530 million people across 21 countries and hope to offer highly resilient data centre capacity to the cloud, subsea cable and connectivity communities.
“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 minimizing risk,” says Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President, Secure Power and Data Center Business at Schneider Electric, Europe.
“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.”
According to Telegeography, international bandwidth in southern Europe has seen over 30% compound annual growth since 2016, which represents a six-times increase in transmission capacity to the region.
Due to its geographical location and the ongoing investments in submarine networks, many organisations are now selecting Crete as a strategic destination for cable termination and data centre deployments.
With this in mind, both Digital Realty and Schneider Electric are wanting to take an instrumental role in transforming the region into a global interconnection hub that brings multiple continents together.
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