Greece's "portfolio" in data centers is confirmed. Companies proceed with investments that start from a few million euros and reach over 400 million euros.
Data centers: Investments of $1,2 billion by 2028
Greece expects funds of more than 1,2 billion dollars in a five-year horizon for the development of centers data, with investments in data centers to grow at a rate of 8,8% per year from now until 2028.
According to estimates, Greece is developing into a preferred country for locating investments in data centers, as investors seem to be choosing to move from traditional - until now - markets to new, emerging ones, such as our country.
"Investors in data centers are moving to new target markets, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, where there is availability of renewable energy sources, while prices in the real estate market remain at reasonable levels" explains a study by ResearchAndMarkets, which maps the market of data centers in our country, highlighting the large investments in data centers, such as those of Microsoft, Lamda Hellix, Google, Amazon Web Services, Lancom.
The data centers will become 24 with their total capacity forming at 139 MW from 34 MW with Greece deservingly claiming the title of hub tradingand data storage, connecting the Middle East and Africa with Europe.
DigitalRealty
Digital Realty is implementing in Greece perhaps the largest investment plan concerning its activity in the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The company's third data center, Athens 3, is now a reality, while the construction of Athens 4 (to be completed in early 2025) next to Athens 3 has begun. Athens 5 is also in an advanced phase. It will also build a data center in Crete, Heraklion 1, with the prospect of being commissioned in mid-2025.
Microsoft
At the same time, Microsoft's investment, which was included in the regime of strategic investments, is particularly important. Based on the information that has been made public in the Strategic Environmental Impact Studies (SEIA) and the Special Spatial Development Strategic Investment Plan Studies (ESHASE) it plans three data centers. One (the largest) will be built in Spata and the other two in Koropi, at a distance of about 9-10 km and all together will be in a functional relationship with each other, as companies of its size are used to doing, ensuring the uninterrupted operation of the their services. The capacity of the data center in Spata (in its property area) will be 19,2 MW, twice that in Koropi (9,6 MW). In added value, Microsoft's investment has been valued at 1 billion Euros.
The large-scale projects in Greece include the three data centers in Attica, the creation of which was announced last year by the American technology group Google. These will constitute Google's cloud region in Greece, allowing the company to upgrade the quality of the services and products it offers to its customers in our country.
With a time horizon of 2030, the American technology group has placed its investment footprint at 2,2 billion euros, an amount corresponding to the contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while it is estimated that it will create 19.400 jobs.
Amazon
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is also making investments in the data center market, with estimates placing them in the region of 200 million euros. The investment is the first expansion of the "Local Zone" infrastructure outside the US and Greece is included among the 11 countries in Europe preferred by the multinational giant.
Local zones are essentially cloud infrastructures and reduce the response time (latency) of applications. They offer computing power, digital storage, databases and other selected services through infrastructures that are installed very close to major urban, industrial and technological centers.
The choice of Greece by the American multinational comes after two years of cooperation with the Greek government that bore the first fruits in early 2020 with the signing of a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Governance and an emphasis on the areas of digital governance, digital skills, of digital infrastructures and innovation and continued this year with a new memorandum of cooperation in the summer which even foresees the creation of a regional space hub.
Lancom
The Greek company Lancom, having invested over 20 million euros to date and with a turnover of over 3 million euros, is starting a new investment in Crete for the creation of another data center which could be a trans-Balkan gateway, as the one in Thessaloniki has developed . In fact, he also promised new investments, after leaving open the possibility of creating new data centers.
Cloudrock
Another investment is that of Cloudrock, which was founded in 2019 and has already implemented an investment of 1 million euros for the installation of a privately owned data center in Agios Stefanos, Attica.
It is a company of 100% Greek interests, which, as announced, plans investments of 3 million euros within five years. Cloudrock offers innovative and "smart" applications that leverage technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI).
Cloudrock's goal is to attract to Greece IT infrastructures that are currently hosted abroad, as well as foreign companies that want to gain a presence in Greece. "Our goal at Cloudrock is to offer services and solutions that leverage business data. What we seek is to be the "smart" partner for our customers", said Vassilis Karavasilis, CEO of Cloudrock.
Sparkle
Sparkle maintains four data centers in Greece, o international multi cloud services arm of Telecom Italia. Although the strategy of the Italian telecommunications provider seems to focus more on networks, Sparkle's presence in Greece counts for many years and a significant clientele.
Other groups such as OTEOTE -2,50%, Synapsecom, Space Hellas and Interworks are also active in the data centers market, while new smaller investments from 3 to 15 million euros are constantly being announced.
Hellas Sat
With an investment of 8 to 10 million euros, Hellas Sat will expand its activity in the Data Centers market. Hellas Sat's Data Center facilities, with the new investment in the Koropi area, will be expanded by 1.200 sq.m. (300 racks). Starting with Cyprus, where the first one was made for international television network NBC as a business continuity center, today Hellas Sat's Data Centers have an area of around 1.000 sq.m.
It is no coincidence that the leadership of Hellas Sat estimated that soon the revenues from hosting servers and data centers will approach the revenues generated by the capacity.
