Digital Realty Expands Innovation Labs to Accelerate AI and Hybrid Cloud
Asia Pacific and European locations will provide real-world environments for customers and partners to test and optimize next generation infrastructure
Digital Realty, the world’s largest cloud- and carrier-neutral data center platform, announced the expansion of its Digital Realty Innovation Lab (DRIL) into Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK). This marks the first expansion of the company’s global DRIL network into Asia Pacific and Europe, following the successful launch of the inaugural DRIL facility in Northern Virginia in September 2025, which has received acclaim from enterprise customers.
The new DRIL locations will offer our ecosystem of partners and customers fully supported, real-world testing environments where they can bring their own workloads or use pre-configured infrastructure to validate AI and hybrid cloud deployments before scaling’. This is especially important as AI adoption increases and infrastructure readiness has emerged as a critical barrier to moving from experimentation to production at scale. All three are expected to be available for use by customers and partners this year.
The launch represents Digital Realty’s commitment to support Singapore, Japan and the UK’s continued leadership in AI innovation. In Singapore, AI adoption is driving continued growth in the nation’s digital economy, which now accounts for 18.6% of total GDP. Japan plans to invest 10 trillion yen or more in the semiconductor and AI sectors by 2030. Meanwhile, the UK’s AI sector continues to accelerate, with more than 5,800 AI companies now operating nationwide, sector revenue reaching £23.9 billion and AI generating £11.8 billion in GVA.
Enabling next-generation AI infrastructure
The Singapore DRIL is designed to serve as a digital innovation hub, bringing together local customers, partners, and research institutions with global technology providers and industry participants seeking to develop, test and deploy AI and hybrid cloud solutions in Singapore.
In Japan, the DRIL will be located at the company’s NRT12 data center in the Greater Tokyo area. Designed to support advanced AI and high-performance computing use cases, it will feature 20 racks with direct liquid cooling (DLC) capabilities, enabling support for high-power-density workloads.
The DRIL in the UK will be in London, providing customers and partners with a dedicated environment to test and validate AI and hybrid cloud deployments before full-scale implementation.
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“Sustaining rapidly expanding digital economies requires innovation ecosystems built on infrastructure that is not only AI-ready, but also efficient, resilient, and trusted,” said Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty.
“Since launching the DRIL in the US, we’ve seen strong demand from customers and partners across Asia Pacific seeking dedicated environments to validate AI and hybrid cloud architectures before deploying at scale. Bringing this capability to Singapore and Japan reflects the digital maturity of these markets and their critical role in shaping the region’s long-term digital competitiveness. By creating spaces where enterprises can test, optimize, and de-risk their AI infrastructure, we’re accelerating responsible deployment and strengthening Asia Pacific’s position as a hub for trusted digital innovation.”
“European AI adoption is expected to grow rapidly, and London sits at the center of that growth,” said Séamus Dunne, Managing Director, UK & Ireland, Digital Realty. “Launching the Digital Realty Innovation Lab in London gives enterprises and partners a real-world environment to validate AI and hybrid cloud architectures before rolling them out across live environments. It’s a critical step in helping organizations deploy next-generation infrastructure faster, and with greater confidence.”
Purpose-built infrastructure for AI and hybrid cloud validation
The new DRIL locations will enable businesses throughout Asia Pacific and Europe to test performance, optimize configurations, and seamlessly connect to cloud and network providers via ServiceFabric, Digital Realty’s global interconnection and orchestration platform.
By leveraging Digital Realty’s global experience in deploying AI-ready infrastructure and its proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) methodology, the DRIL enables customers to test, optimize, and validate AI deployments in real-world conditions, reducing complexity and significantly accelerating the journey from pilot to production.
Consistent with the global network of DRILs, key features will include:
- High-density AI and HPC testing – Support for AI and high-performance computing workloads with high-density colocation, accommodating deployments of up to 150kW per cabinet.
- Energy and cooling-aware testing – Enables enterprises to evaluate AI performance, power density, and efficiency trade-offs before full-scale deployment.
- AI infrastructure optimization – Enables businesses to explore AI-specific power, cooling, and GPU resource requirements in an environment optimized for AI workloads.
- Hybrid cloud validation – Direct cloud connectivity allows enterprises to refine hybrid strategies and seamlessly onboard through ServiceFabric®, Digital Realty’s interconnection and orchestration platform.
- AI workload orchestration – Customers can orchestrate AI workloads across Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange (AIPx) to enable secure, low-latency integration across distributed environments.
- Latency testing across locations – Enterprises can test latency scenarios ensuring seamless performance across multiple locations as well as cloud destinations.
The global DRIL network supports a growing ecosystem of customers and partners, including AMD, Cisco, and Lenovo, focused on scaling AI and hybrid cloud architectures.
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