FeaturesOutsourcing

Global ICT services player, NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), has opened its first self-designed-and-built green data centers outside Japan in Singapore and Malaysia, spurred by encouraging growth prospects in the Asia Pacific cloud computing market. A third such data center will be opened in Hong Kong early next year after the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) route there is added this December.

Frost & Sullivan has projected that the cloud computing market for the Asia Pacific region, ex-Japan, will grow at a CAGR of 39% from 2010 to 2015 while Forrester Research has identified Singapore and Australia as the countries with the strongest cloud adoption in that region. In the former, 42% of organizations are leveraging cloud computing, up from 16% in 2010 and 6% in 2009.

"Our revenue in Asia grew by 20% year-on-year in the last two years with cloud services the largest growth area in the region," said Takashi Kazami, president and CEO of NTT Singapore Pte. Ltd. "While financial services is a major target segment, we serve all vertical industries including the public sector."

"We provide a one-stop, seamless cloud solution from the network, data center and server to applications because we own the infrastructure and we build the cloud [layers and services] on top of that," said Theodoric Chan, the COO of NTT Singapore Pte. Ltd. "[Our] customers [do not need] to manage different providers for SaaS, IaaS and PaaS. More importantly, this is cost-effective."

With more than 3,000 customers globally, NTT Com expects that "by 2040, Asia will increase from 20% now to 30% of our global revenues and by 2050, Asia will exceed 40% of global revenues driven by a big outsourcing requirement in the region," said Chan. "Most of our customers are global companies. Our non-Japanese global customer base is larger than our Japanese customer base."

Already operating data centers in 13 Asia-Pacific countries, NTT Com's latest facilities, its fourth in Singapore and the third in Malaysia, will support its ongoing expansion in the region.

The data centers will be connected to Japan by the 7,200 km ASE, an ultra-low latency 40Gbps undersea cable system being built by NTT Com, Malaysia-based Telekom Malaysia, Philippines-based PLDT and Singapore-based StarHub. Boasting a total carrying capacity exceeding 15Tbps, the ASE can incorporate 100Gbps optical technology in the future.

"We are landing the ASE in Singapore next month, providing an ultra-low latency main trunk between Singapore and Japan with a branch connection to Hong Kong as well as two more connections to Philippines and Malaysia," Chan said. "And from Japan, we own the Pacific Crossing Submarine Cable (PC-1), which is the shortest low-latency connection between Japan and the US." NTT Com uses the PC-1 to deliver global IP network services, cloud-network services and global cloud services.

The S$190m Singapore Tier-III+ Serangoon Data Center has been operational since end February, offering co-location, cloud services, NTT Com's global network services and other related services to companies in the financial, information technology and manufacturing sectors. Equipped with green technologies and IPv6-ready networks, the facility hosts 2,500 racks in a 5,000sqm server room area.

"Many Japanese enterprises view our international business connections and our attractiveness as a talent hub as being important factors for them to site their regional business operations here," said Ronnie Tay, CEO of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore at its opening. "Over the past few years, we have facilitated global companies in setting up their IT functions here, creating more than 1,600 high-end IT jobs and generating more than S$950 million in IT investments."

Meanwhile, NTT Com's wholly owned Malaysian subsidiary, NTT MSC Sdn. Bhd., has added the Tier III-ready Cyberjaya 3 Data Center to the Cyberjaya 1 and Cyberjaya 2 data centers in serving South-east Asian customers. "Malaysia offers cost advantages, well-developed infrastructure, a large talent pool and good governmental support for infrastructure development," said Fumitoshi Imaizumi, president and CEO of NTT MSC.  "Such strengths have propelled Malaysia into the position of one of the world's top-three outsourcing destinations."

The new data center started its operation on April 26 is positioned as a remote back-up and offshore site taking advantage of Malaysia’s low electricity rates and stable infrastructure. An NTT Com-operated annex building offers on-site office space.

The Cyberjaya 3 facility is expected to be certified under the Green Building Index (GBI), Malaysia's green rating index, for employing renewable-energy technologies such as solar panels, double-walled structures for improved insulation and recycled rain water.

In fast-paced international financial trading, even microsecond delays can lead to highly damaging results. So, as part of its low latency strategy for electronic trading, NTT Com's Financial Data Centre in Tseung Kwan O will be built adjacent to the upcoming Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited's data center.

This strategy is further boosted by co-locating the cable landing station of ASE and the network node of its global network, creating an ultra-low latency link with the shortest route among three financial hubs -- Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.