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The agreement announced by the president of Microsoft and the prime minister and provides for the creation of the first data center complex in our country (data center region), places Greece at the center of digital developments and makes it a hub attracting important technological investments. Data centers are the facilities where a large amount of data is stored and supports cloud technology, which in Greek has been translated to cloud computing. In short, this technology serves citizens and companies that instead of storing their data on their computer or on a server, they will use the application in the cloud, which is compatible and works thanks to data centers. It is worth noting that our country is the first in the broader region of Southeast Europe to acquire a data center region (it is a complex of three data center facilities). So far, Microsoft operates data centers in 4 EU countries, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland. Still under construction in 3 others, Poland, Italy and Spain. Thus, Greece becomes the eighth country in the EU. selected by Microsoft to transfer and store data in the cloud and only 27th in the world.
The Davos meeting and the consultation schedule
The agreement between Microsoft and the government to establish the first data center region in the Balkans may have been kept secret until the end, but the preparation was feverish and took months. In fact, it all started 9 months ago when the Prime Minister, visiting the annual conference in Davos, met for the first time with the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith. Mr. Smith, who had visited our country in the past, had a very positive impression of the reform plan presented to him by Mr. Mitsotakis. At this meeting, the Prime Minister presented a proposal to build a Microsoft data center in Greece. Although our country was not in the original plan that Microsoft had made to expand its network of data centers, this changed along the way. The dedication and method displayed by both the Greek government and the prime minister’s staff, as well as Microsoft executives in Greece, paid off. The Davos meeting was followed by Brad Smith’s visit to Athens in late February, the last trip the Microsoft chairman made before the first wave of the pandemic. Several teleconferences followed to finally reach the agreement, which was sealed with their joint presentation by the Prime Minister and the President of Microsoft, on their first trip after the first phase of the pandemic.
Many contributed to this important result: From Maximou, the central coordinating role was played by the Head of the Finance Office, Alexis Patelis, who was also present at the initial meeting in Davos and all subsequent meetings. The role of the Director of the Prime Minister’s Office, Grigoris Dimitriadis, in confidential contacts was also crucial. From the Microsoft side, the key to our country’s support in the multinational giant was the CEO of Microsoft Greece, Theodosis Michalopoulos and the team that surrounded him, who supported in every way the effort to bring investment to Greece. While the Minister of Digital Government Kyriakos Pierrakakis and the Deputy Minister of Development Nikos Papathanasis began negotiations with Microsoft teams around the world that had to be convinced of the technological and operational readiness of the country.
The investment roadmap
The data center region, as Microsoft’s data center clusters are called, will be located in Attica. The construction of three different units is chosen as a solution to meet strict safety standards and ensure their smooth operation even in the event of damage to one of them due to a natural disaster (eg earthquake) or other reason. At the same time, due to the company’s CO2 (negative carbon) “negative footprint” policy, green energy will be fully utilized for its operation.
Greece in the 4th industrial revolution
Although the amount of the investment cannot yet be determined precisely, it is estimated at hundreds of millions of euros for the construction of data centers and dozens for their operation. The financial footprint of such an investment was estimated at 1 billion in Poland and 1.5 billion in Italy. Many high-paying jobs will be created. Just think that the company itself will train 100,000 people, obviously not to be hired by Microsoft, but it is indicative of the demand created by the 4th industrial revolution, much less for all indirect jobs. In fact, investments such as Microsoft or Pfizer in Thessaloniki, which presuppose the hiring of highly qualified scientists, reinforce the government’s efforts to reverse the brain drain and the return of young scientists who left Greece during the crisis.
However, the most important benefits in this case come neither from the capital to be invested nor from the jobs that will be created. On the contrary, it will be the product of the operation of data centers in our country. This investment has a different quality. Mobilize the transformation of other companies. The cloud (or cloud computing in Greek) allows many companies to modernize and significantly improve their competitiveness. It is no coincidence that both abroad and in Greece many small and large companies choose, instead of “traditional” servers, to store their digital data in the cloud. Until now, cloud data from Greece ended up in countries like the Netherlands or Ireland. Now they will be stored in the data centers that will be created in our country. This development has several advantages, the first being the two main ones: first, the degree of security is increased and what we would translate something not proven in Greek as resilience (from English resilience). This has to do not only with the fact that the digital files in the cloud will be on Greek soil but also with the elimination of technical problems that had to do with the “journey” that the data made abroad. And of course the information that will be stored in the cloud is shielded both by the very strict rules set by Microsoft itself and by the institutional framework of the RGPD that guarantees privacy in the movement of personal data. The second important advantage is the increase in the speed of data transmission that allows the development of new technological applications and the increase in the productivity of the Greek economy as a whole. It is no coincidence that the expansion of the use of the Cloud is considered a precondition for the development of industries that have been identified with the 4th industrial revolution, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and “big data”.
In any case, many Greek companies that were exploring the possibility of adopting the cloud but were hesitant about storing their files in data centers abroad will now have a very significant incentive to transition to the new era.
Aside from the positive impact that investment has on the Greek economy, it is true that Microsoft’s choice of Greece has multiple positive benefits. Although the decision to locate the data centers in Attica was dictated by purely economic reasons, the truth is that the storage of data in the cloud in Greece, contributes to strengthening the geostrategic role of our country in the wider region.
Beyond data centers
The installation of the data center cluster is part of the #GrforGrowth strategic agreement that includes many more actions. Most important is the training and certification of tens of thousands of employees in the public and private sectors, as well as students and the unemployed. Specifically, the company plans to train more than 20,000 officials and 20,000 from private companies. The goal is to train a total of 100,000.
There is also an ongoing collaboration between Microsoft and the Ministry of Culture with the aim of highlighting our cultural heritage through digital applications that use artificial intelligence and augmented reality in Ancient Olympia.
Source: skai.gr
