Summary:
1. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has chosen Digital Realty’s Athens data center campus for AWS Direct Connect, improving cloud access in Southeast Europe.
2. Digital Realty is expanding its AWS connectivity footprint to meet the demand for hybrid IT architectures, offering private connections from 50 Mbps to 100 Gbps.
3. The deployment in Athens highlights Greece’s digital infrastructure growth and the government’s push for digital transformation, positioning the city as a key hub for cloud services.
Article:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has recently announced the selection of Digital Realty’s Athens data center campus as the latest location for AWS Direct Connect, a move that will significantly enhance cloud access in Southeast Europe. By adding an on-ramp at Digital Realty’s ATH3 facility, enterprises in the region can now establish secure, low-latency, and private connections to AWS’s Mediterranean Region, bypassing the public internet entirely.
Digital Realty, known for its carrier-neutral data centers and interconnection solutions, is expanding its AWS connectivity footprint in response to the increasing demand for hybrid IT architectures. The Athens deployment joins a network of 17 other AWS Direct Connect locations on Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL, including major global cities like Frankfurt, London, and Paris. This service offers Digital Realty customers the flexibility to create private network connections to AWS environments, ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Gbps.
This strategic move underscores Greece’s growing importance as a digital infrastructure hub for Southeast Europe. As global and regional firms seek to modernize their IT environments, access to cloud-native services like AWS through reliable, high-throughput connectivity becomes essential. AWS Direct Connect plays a crucial role in helping organizations optimize their hybrid workloads by enabling faster and more predictable data transfers with enhanced security and performance.
In Athens, Digital Realty customers can now seamlessly integrate AWS services into their architecture through a single cross-connect. The close physical proximity between their infrastructure and AWS resources helps minimize network variability, latency spikes, and congestion often associated with internet-based routes. Data exchanged via Direct Connect travels exclusively through AWS’s global network, ensuring a consistent user experience.
The Greek government’s push for digital transformation, including investments in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and network infrastructure, has positioned Greece as a leading digital hub in the region. This aligns with Digital Realty’s mission to provide enterprises in Athens with direct access to global cloud providers, facilitating the modernization of their IT infrastructure and unlocking new business opportunities.
Alexandros Bechrakis, Managing Director of Digital Realty in Greece, emphasized the importance of this development in reinforcing Athens as a regional connectivity hub. Doug Lane, Director of AWS Direct Connect, highlighted the technical and operational benefits of private connections, such as lower costs, better performance, and higher reliability compared to public internet connections.
Overall, the deployment of AWS Direct Connect in Athens signifies a significant milestone in the ongoing upgrading of IT infrastructure across the Mediterranean and Europe. As businesses increasingly seek reliable, high-performance cloud access, investments like these will play a crucial role in shaping the future of the global cloud ecosystem for data center operators and cloud service providers.
