The new HER1 digital hub bridges the connectivity and infrastructure gap in Southern Europe by interconnecting international, regional, and local subsea cables to better serve the EMEA region.
· Digital Realty’s new HER1 facility leverages Schneider Electric’s modular data center solutions to deliver the project in a remote location in 12 months, adhering to strict reliability and energy efficiency standards.
Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation in energy management and automation, has partnered with Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest provider of cloud and neutral data center solutions, colocation and interconnection, to launch a new HER1 data center in Heraklion, Crete.
In early April 2025, HER1 became the first carrier-neutral facility on the island, playing an important role in bridging the digital divide in Southern Europe. It provides interconnection for international, regional, and local submarine cables, enabling cloud providers, telecom companies, and content delivery networks (CDNs) to serve the surrounding regions more efficiently.
HER1 works in tandem with rapidly growing markets, including Athens, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, and Tel Aviv, and is a key part of Digital Realty’s Mediterranean data center platform. This is a significant step toward making Greece a strategic connectivity hub for Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Following the successful implementation of a modular data center at its Marseille 2 (MRS2) facility, Digital Realty once again leveraged Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ modular data center portfolio of Tier III-ready solutions. This enabled HER1 to overcome a number of challenges, including accelerated facility launch (less than 12 months), increased energy efficiency requirements, and the need to manufacture, test, and deliver equipment off-site due to its remote location in Crete.
To this end, Schneider Electric provided a specialized solution comprising two fully integrated, modular power units with medium-voltage (MV) equipment, transformers, low-voltage (LV) equipment, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, and air cooling. Two large-scale all-in-one data halls with power, cooling, and IT were also installed, equipped with the EcoStruxure monitoring system for building and energy management (EPMS).
In addition, Schneider Electric provided a full range of design, construction, and consulting services for the data center, including all mechanical, electrical (M&E), and software equipment, manufacturing, assembly, commissioning, and security systems. This enabled Digital Realty’s HER1 facility to meet tight implementation deadlines while reducing the risk of on-site installation failures.
“Digital Realty’s significant investment in the new data center in Heraklion underscores our commitment to making the Mediterranean a global connectivity hub that connects continents and drives digital transformation,” said Fabrice Coccio, senior vice president of Digital Realty in France. “Through our strategic partnership with Schneider Electric, we are accelerating the launch of this important project to respond quickly to the growth of digital traffic in the region, while improving network reliability and diversity for businesses and communities.”
New gateway for Southern Europe
According to Telegeography, international capacity in Southern Europe has grown at a compound annual rate of over 30% since 2016, representing a sixfold increase in transmission capacity in the region.
Thanks to its geographical location and ongoing investments in submarine networks such as 2Africa, Andromeda, East to Med Corridor (EMC), Medusa, and Thetis, many organizations are choosing Crete as a strategic location for submarine cable termination and data center hosting. This transforms the region into a global interconnection hub connecting several continents.
HER1, Digital Realty’s first carrier-neutral data center in Crete, is located near the landing points of several of these submarine cable systems and will provide a highly reliable infrastructure for cloud services, submarine network operators, and communities requiring connectivity.
“Schneider Electric has been working with Digital Realty for many years to meet the highest standards of data center construction worldwide, and our joint HER1 project demonstrates the tremendous potential of modular solutions for delivering complex projects on a tight schedule with minimal risk,” said Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President, Secure Power and Data Center Business, Schneider Electric in Europe. “The successful implementation of HER1 is an important milestone in the development of data centers in Southern Europe. With the creation of this new global connectivity hub in Crete, Digital Realty will connect customers across continents for years to come.”
For more information on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Modular Data Center solutions, visit the official website.
About Schneider Electric
Schneider’s purpose is to make an impact by empowering everyone to make the most of our energy and resources, enabling progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On.
Our mission is to be a trusted partner in sustainability and efficiency.
We are a global industry technology leader, bringing global expertise in electrification, automation, and digitalization to smart industries, reliable infrastructure, high-performance data centers, intelligent buildings, and intuitive homes. Drawing on our deep industry expertise, we provide integrated, end-to-end IoT solutions with artificial intelligence-enabled connected products, automation, software, and services, creating digital twins to deliver profitable growth for our customers.
Our company’s main resource is our 150,000 employees and over one million partners working in more than 100 countries around the world to ensure proximity to our customers and stakeholders. We support diversity and inclusion in everything we do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.
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About Digital Realty
Digital Realty connects companies and data by offering a full range of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. The company’s PlatformDIGITAL®, a global data center platform, provides customers with a secure environment for data exchange and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) methodology to drive innovation and effectively address the challenges associated with data concentration (Data Gravity). Digital Realty provides its customers with access to the data communities that matter most to them through a global network of more than 300 facilities in 50+ cities and 25+ countries across six continents. For more information about Digital Realty, visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
– The digital twin provides enhanced insight and control over the electrical systems and energy needs of an AI factory.
– The product collaboration integrates ETAP’s advanced digital twin technology with NVIDIA Omniverse™ Cloud APIs.
– Operators can benefit from improved energy efficiency, predictive maintenance, and lower total cost of ownership.
Boston (USA), March 18, 2025 – Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation for energy management and automation, and ETAP, an industry and technology leader in the design and operation of energy systems, are introducing an innovative digital twin that can accurately design and model the energy needs of artificial intelligence factories (or AI factories). Using the NVIDIA Omniverse™ Blueprint for AI Factory Digital Twins, Schneider Electric and ETAP are enabling the development of digital twins that combine multiple inputs for mechanical, thermal, network, and electrical systems to simulate how an AI factory operates. This collaboration aims to transform the design and operation of AI factories by providing improved understanding and control over electrical systems and energy needs, opening up opportunities for significant advances in efficiency, reliability, and sustainability.
Previously, basic visualization of electrical systems was possible, but the integration of ETAP and NVIDIA Omniverse technologies enables a comprehensive digital twin of an AI factory where multiple speakers interact seamlessly. ETAP’s sophisticated modeling technology creates a virtual replica of the data center’s electrical infrastructure and combines it with real-time power system data, advanced analytics, and insights. Intelligent algorithms analyze and predict energy consumption and distribution patterns, providing unprecedented insights:
– Advanced design and modeling of electrical systems
– Dynamic analysis of “what if” scenarios
– Real-time monitoring of electrical infrastructure performance
– Optimization of energy efficiency
– Predictive maintenance and system reliability assessment
– Infrastructure needs based on energy usage, which can help reduce total cost of ownership
Regardless of where it is deployed, whether in specialized high-end AI clusters or edge solutions, AI is driving a rapid increase in data center capacity. Unlike traditional computing tasks, AI tasks require a significant increase in electrical power, both for a single server rack (100 kW or more) and for the data center as a whole.
As the adoption of AI accelerates, startups, enterprises, colocation providers, and Internet giants must rethink data center design and management to address the growing need for energy efficiency.
ETAP and NVIDIA’s collaboration introduces an innovative network-to-chip approach that addresses the critical challenges of energy management, performance optimization, and energy efficiency in the AI era. Currently, data center operators have access to rack-level estimates of average energy consumption, but the new digital twin of ETAP aims to increase the accuracy of modeling dynamic load behavior at the chip level to improve power system design and optimize energy efficiency.
This joint effort underscores both ETAP and NVIDIA’s commitment to driving innovation in the data center sector, enabling businesses to optimize their operations and effectively manage the challenges of AI workloads. The collaboration aims to increase data center efficiency, as well as improve network reliability and performance.
“As AI workloads grow in complexity and scale, precise energy management is critical to ensure efficiency, reliability, and sustainability,” said Dion Harris, senior director of HPC and AI Factory solutions at NVIDIA. “Through our collaboration with ETAP and Schneider Electric, we are giving data center operators unprecedented visibility and control over energy dynamics, enabling them to optimize their infrastructure, accelerate AI adoption, and improve operational resiliency.”
“This collaboration represents more than just a technology solution,” said Tanuj Khandelwal, CEO of ETAP. “We are fundamentally rethinking how data centers can be designed, managed, and optimized in the AI era. By combining electrical engineering with advanced virtualization and AI technologies, we are creating a new paradigm for infrastructure management.”
Pankaj Sharma, Executive Vice President, Data Center, Networking and Services, Schneider Electric, added: “Collaboration, speed, and innovation are the driving forces behind the transformation of digital infrastructure required to handle AI workloads. Together, ETAP, Schneider Electric, and NVIDIA are not only advancing data center technology, we are enabling businesses to optimize their operations and seamlessly manage AI energy needs.”
About ETAP
ETAP provides market-leading software solutions for electrical systems, from design and engineering to operations and maintenance.
Through its integrated digital twin electric system platform, ETAP delivers best-in-class, continuous customer experience and cloud-enabled technologies, providing universal access for designers, engineers, and operators, accelerating their digital transformation of the power industry even in the most regulated environments.
More than 20,000 enterprises worldwide rely on ETAP to achieve full efficiency and sustainability across all life cycle stages for utilities, infrastructure, industry, and buildings. For more than 38 years, driving excellence, innovation and customer satisfaction, ETAP’s deep expertise is supported by the dedication of more than 1,000 employees and a strong community of active users.
ETAP is headquartered in Irvine, California, with regional operations around the world to support local customers.
About Schneider Electric
Schneider’s purpose is to create impact by empowering everyone to make the most of our energy and resources, ensuring progress and sustainability for all. We call it Life Is On.
Our mission is to be a trusted partner in sustainability and efficiency.
We are a global technology leader, bringing world-class expertise in electrification, automation and digitalization to smart industries, reliable infrastructure, future-proof data centers, smart buildings and intuitive homes. Drawing on our deep industry expertise, we provide integrated end-to-end AI-enabled industrial IoT solutions with connected products, automation, software and services, creating digital twins to drive profitable growth for our customers.
Ourmain resource is our 150,000 employees and more than a million partners operating in more than 100 countries to ensure proximity to our customers and stakeholders. We support diversity and inclusion in everything we do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.
