Cloud competition heats up with new data centre
Mr Supparat attributes data centre growth to the rise of over-the-top platforms and content provider services in Thailand.
Competition in Thailand’s data centre market is expected to intensify, driven by the launch of the STT Bangkok 1 data centre, developed by ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Thailand (STT GDC Thailand).
China plays a major role in the segment, with tech powerhouse Huawei claiming three data centres in Thailand, while internet giant Tencent has two here and e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba reportedly aims to establish one.
According to global tech research company Gartner, Thailand’s spending on public cloud services is expected to surge 31.7% year-on-year to 26.8 billion baht in 2021 and 28.2% to 34.4 billion baht in 2022.
STT Bangkok 1 is the first of two buildings on the STT Bangkok Data Centre Campus, operated by STT GDC Thailand, a joint venture between Frasers Property Thailand, an integrated real estate platform in Thailand, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, a major data centre service provider headquartered in Singapore.
The 7.3-billion-baht data centre project spanning 15 rai is located in the Hua Mak area, one of Bangkok’s business districts. It is the largest hyperscale data centre in Thailand.
The seven-storey STT Bangkok 1 offers a gross floor area of 30,000 square metres and delivers up to 20 megawatts of total IT load capacity to support customers’ business expansion with the ability to scale up to 40MW.
“The pandemic has driven the use of digital services while the strong mobile usage driven by 5G also increases demand for data centres and cloud services,” Supparat Singhara Na Ayutthaya, chief executive of STT GDC Thailand, said at a media briefing.
He said the launch is the first milestone for his company and signals “a new era of digital infrastructure” in Thailand.
According to global research company Frost & Sullivan, Thailand’s data centre market is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 26.5% between 2019 and 2026, reaching US$821 million in 2026.
In 2021, the market value is expected to reach $240 million, up from $191 million a year before.
“We believe the new facility will be sold out within five years. The second building is expected to be up and running with within 3-4 years,” Mr Supparat said.
He attributed data centre growth to the rise of over-the-top platforms and content provider services (CPS) in Thailand, an increase in IT spending by enterprises pivoting towards digital transformation and a surge of global cloud service providers coming to the country.
Mr Supparat said telecom and banks account for 50% of the total data centre market. Cloud usage and CPS make up 10% but the proportion is expected to rise to 30% in years to come.
“We have scalability that can provide faster time to market and respond effectively to purpose,” he said, adding that the company’s data centre is built with environmentally friendly features and security standards applied.
Clement Goh, chief executive for Southeast Asia at ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, said Thailand is one of Asean’s strategic locations with the rise of international connectivity using submarine cables, the 5G network and digital services.
“The country can be the digital hub of the Indochina region,” he said.
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