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Development on new phases continues despite the unspoken moratorium, with several major cloud services increasing their local platforms

Despite the unofficial moratorium on new site development, Singapore continues to lead the greater APAC region in data centre innovation and often as the first market reviewed for regional market entry. Phased buildouts are still continuing…

Development on new phases continues despite the unspoken moratorium, with several major cloud services increasing their local platforms

Despite the unofficial moratorium on new site development, Singapore continues to lead the greater APAC region in data centre innovation and often as the first market reviewed for regional market entry. Phased buildouts are still continuing, with Digital Realty, Equinix, and Iron Mountain all underway on additional capacity and new entrant AirTrunk continuing their initial local campus. Major global cloud services continue to view Singapore as a first-tier location for new releases, with Google Cloud, Alibaba, and Oracle all making further inroads in coming months, and Tencent recently established a Singapore office to focus on regional expansion.

The prize for each platform lies not only in Singaporean business, but to allow local capacity to serve regional deployments across Southeast and greater Asia for large multinationals. As demands grow on local infrastructure, it remains to be seen if Singapore will lose workloads to developing lower cost markets, whether that be Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, or elsewhere. The trade-off would be a loss in connectivity and available services, though if local capacity is unable to develop it may prove a needed shift. Despite this potential shift in future, for the time being Singapore will likely attract companies concerned about regional political issues, as Naver’s move from Hong Kong indicates. Anecdotal reports indicate that further moves for communications, media, and financial organizations are being mooted, suggesting a major opportunity for those few who are fortunate to have available capacity.

All in all another positive several months for Singapore, with the possibility of more good news ahead.

Sydney has continued its progression as a hyperscale cloud destination, with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Alibaba all continuing their local market inroads in a bid for further market share. Each has been intrigued by the plethora of locally based mid- and large-size enterprises currently reviewing their IT strategy, along with the many government and educational organizations pursuing modernization initiatives from the NSW government and ATO on down. As each service signs up new clients…

Sydney has continued its progression as a hyperscale cloud destination, with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Alibaba all continuing their local market inroads in a bid for further market share. Each has been intrigued by the plethora of locally based mid- and large-size enterprises currently reviewing their IT strategy, along with the many government and educational organizations pursuing modernization initiatives from the NSW government and ATO on down. As each service signs up new clients, the need for further local capacity continues to grow, leading to large-scale development.

AirTrunk is leading the way in large development, with SYD2 aiming for year-end completion and the second phase of SYD1 in serious planning. The developments support the company’s continued growth across Asia, with sites in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo all under construction. Fujitsu recently announced a further expansion to their Western Sydney site, with another 20 MW coming online early next year, and the Alpha DC Fund, NextDC, Macquarie, and Digital Realty are all working on new capacity.

The local investment acquisition market has stayed quiet to date in 2020, though anecdotal reports of investors looking for acquirable assets continue to circulate. Other assets throughout the country have traded hands, with the A$417 million sale-and-leaseback of Telstra’s Melbourne-area campus as the largest single-asset transaction to have been signed for this year. Assisted by an exceptionally rare 30-year lease term, the acquisition could show the potential for data centre deals with strong tenancy. All considered Sydney remains a strong and well-provisioned market which should continue well into the next couple of years.

Tokyo is rapidly becoming a regional hub for hyperscale deployments, as the xScale joint venture between Equinix and GIC nears first phase completion and development continues from the Digital Realty/Mitsubishi Corporation partnership on their latest site. These developments have…

Tokyo is rapidly becoming a regional hub for hyperscale deployments, as the xScale joint venture between Equinix and GIC nears first phase completion and development continues from the Digital Realty/Mitsubishi Corporation partnership on their latest site.

These developments have now been joined by AirTrunk, who confirmed their long-rumored entry to the market with the 60 MW first phase of their new 300 MW TOK1 campus to be operational by the end of 2021. This site thus has the potential to be the highest capacity campus locally at full build-out and serves as a major confirmation of both market potential and specifically the rapidly developing data centre cluster at Inzai. This focus on larger deployments is predicated on the continued digital transformation of large local corporations, with major cloud services such as Google and Alibaba making recent inroads and additional supporting applications gaining wider availability. All this leads to continued positive growth throughout the local ecosystem.

COVID-19 Driving Growing Demand for Data

Despite the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties and COVID-19 outbreak, activity in the Hong Kong data center market has remained red hot. In one of the largest leasing transactions this year, US-based data center REIT Digital Realty announced in early July that it agreed to lease a newly completed purpose-built data center at 11 Kin Chueng Street in Kwai Chung as the operator’s second facility in the city.

COVID-19 Driving Growing Demand for Data

Despite the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties and COVID-19 outbreak, activity in the Hong Kong data center market has remained red hot. In one of the largest leasing transactions this year, US-based data center REIT Digital Realty announced in early July that it agreed to lease a newly completed purpose-built data center at 11 Kin Chueng Street in Kwai Chung as the operator’s second facility in the city.

The third wave of the virus outbreak in Hong Kong saw MNCs suspending their back-to-office plans and requesting their staff to work from home. It is anticipated that even in the aftermath of the pandemic that many companies will continue to allow some level of remote working, which will in turn accelerate the pace of digital transformation of businesses in all aspects and lead to a surge in demand for cloud usage. Hong Kong’s impending introduction of 5G will also drive more usage of data, which in turn, will translate into increased demand for rack spaces in the city. Reflective of this, a handful of PRC and international operators remain on the active lookout for suitable leasing or investment opportunities in the city.