The opening of the new data center is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday. Lambda spiral – members of the American group Digital Real Estate– on Gefestova street in Koropi. This is Lamda Hellix Athens 3, the largest data center in Greece and the company’s third center in Athens. This is the first phase of a €70 million investment and the new 6.8 MW data center will be the largest of any existing data center in Greece, with premises capable of hosting more than 50,000 servers. The data center in Koropi has a total equipped area of ​​3100 square meters, located in buildings with a total area of ​​more than 8600 square meters. It is part of the Athens Data Center campus, the Lamda Hellix data center complex, and will be connected to the already existing Athens 1 and Athens 2 facilities. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Digital Realty CEO A. William Stein are expected to attend the opening ceremony scheduled for early tomorrow morning.

As you know, data centers host data and information that is transmitted over the Internet. As a result, the growth of data centers is strictly tied to investment in the development of submarine fiber optic cables, which form the “backbone” of the Internet. According to a recent study by the real estate consultancy Savills, 98% of the world’s Internet traffic passes through approximately 430 active submarine networks around the world, spanning 1.35 million kilometers.

Lamda Hellix Athens 3 has a capacity of 6.8 MW and will be able to host more than 50,000 servers.

This type of investment was launched by Lamda Hellix, which a few days ago expanded its cooperation with Grid Telecom, a subsidiary of the Independent Electricity Transmission Operator (ADMIE). This partnership is centered on Crete, where the intercontinental, regional and national submarine cable systems launched by the two companies will be beached. In this direction, Lamda Hellix plans to develop its first neutral data center (HER1) in Heraklion, which will be able to host and interconnect these cable systems, as well as with other telecommunications systems. Lamda Hellix’s new data center investments include Athens 4, for which Lamda Hellix recently received planning permission, founder and CEO Apostolos Kakkos announced on social media yesterday.

Across Europe, increased demand for broadband services has spurred investment in data centers. According to Savills, 56 data centers are expected to be built by the end of the year, while more than 240 such facilities have been built over the past five years. By 2025, 32 new data centers with a total capacity of 600 MW are expected to appear in Europe.

Planned investments in fiber optic cables are also important, with 18 such projects expected to be completed by 2025. Greece is one of the European countries through which part of the submarine optical fiber (2Africa, Blue, India Europe Xpress) or all (Apollo East and West) will pass.