Digital Realty expands Singapore data centre

Digital Realty Trust has launched its second data centre facility in Singapore. Depending upon ultimate customer configuration, density, and scope, Digital Realty expects to invest upwards of S$200 million in new data centre infrastructure, underscoring the company’s commitment to Singapore’s Smart Nation plan, which encourages the sustainable supply of data centres to ensure sufficient future capacity. The new facility also addresses a growing demand for agile, open, and connected data centre solutions from cloud and content providers and financial services companies across the region and worldwide.

The data centre will span approximately 177,000 square feet and is a redevelopment of an existing printing paper storage facility. Digital Realty has entered into a purchase agreement with the seller and has obtained Jurong Town Corporation’s (JTC) consent for lease assignment. Legal completion is expected to occur in early July 2015, although power and fiber works are already underway.

Digital Realty has extensive experience in converting non-technical buildings into connectivity-rich data centres, which helps it bring data centres to market faster. Located in Singapore’s northeast, the new 13.2MW data centre will connect via dark fiber to Digital Realty’s first data centre, in the west of the city-state, which is home to global Tier 1 carriers, the Singapore Internet Exchange, and the Digital CloudConnect network. Together, these facilities offer geographic diversification and increased options for diverse IT workload deployments in Singapore. The current construction program provides for an estimated late 2015 delivery of the powered base building along with up to 3.2 MW of data centre space.

“Our first data centre in Singapore marked Digital Realty’s entrance into one of Asia Pacific’s rapid expansion markets and enabled our global clients to enter the city-state and serve other regional markets with a trusted partner,” said Daryl Dunbar, Managing Director Asia Pacific at Digital Realty. “Our new data centre expansion supports Singapore’s efforts to become a regional data centre hub and delivers the openness and agility that our global clients continue to want from us, as well as the broader data centre industry, to accelerate their growth.

“With the growing demand for premium data centre services, it is imperative for leading data centre providers such as Digital Realty to continue raising the bar to strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading data management and connectivity hub. Aligned to our vision for Singapore to become the digital innovation capital of Asia, Digital Realty’s expansion will enable both local and international companies to build new digital capabilities and scale critical digital services in a cost effective and efficient manner,” said Kiren Kumar, Director of Information Communications and Media, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

Other data centre highlights:

· Compliant with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Threat and Vulnerability Risk Assessment Guidelines
· Target Green Mark Platinum certification (new building category)
· Access to over 50 cloud service providers globally via Digital CloudConnect and to over 1,000 network providers
Digital Realty’s first data centre in Singapore became fully operational in 2011 and was recently awarded the Green Mark Platinum certification under the category of ‘existing colocation data centre.’ At 370,500 square feet, it is the largest of the company’s data centres in the Asia Pacific region.