Data Centres in Asia at inflection point

Current research by BroadGroup suggests that Asia is now positioned for significant growth in the data centre sector. The market holds many similarities to Europe around 2-3 years ago, although the player landscape is markedly different. There are few pan-Asian players - with SingTel's EXPAN and PacNet formed from the recent merger of Pacific Internet Singapore and Asia Netcom - as leading contenders in this space. A recent alliance between 4 independent data centre operators in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam may also herald a shift in market play. The presence too of property players, investors and entrepreneurs across the region is also evident. Much of the remaining data centre sector is dominated by telcos. It will be interesting to observe developments now as enterprises outsourcing to third parties demand increasingly tough conditions to comply with legislative mandates, but also the well honed corporate social responsibility (CSR) requirements for Green data centres at a time when it is at its most challenging moment to upgrade and mitigate power and cooling requirements.