Insights into Data Centre Investment & Market Growth

Pulsant invests £3m in expansion at Rotherham data centre

Pulsant has announced that the new investment will see an expansion of its Rotherham data centre capacity by 116% to 380kW. The new power will accommodate growing regional demand for low latency, high performance, scalable network infrastructure.  At more than 2000SQM, the Rotherham site will see total IT space increase by 30% to support a growing technology sector demand in the Yorkshire and Humber region with edge colocation, hyperscale cloud access, and distributed compute services.  As on-site capacity increases, its commitment to driving sustainable operations across its national network continues with the Rotherham site the first to pilot non-palm derived HVO biofuel to replace fossil diesel in its standby power generators. Pulsant is also eliminating the use of FM200 fire suppressant gas and moving to LED sensor lighting to reduce electricity use across the centre. Ben Cranham, Chief Operating Officer at Pulsant, comments, “Our focus on delivering regional access to edge infrastructure is seeing us invest significantly to meet the growing demand for access to low latency, high performance, compute, storage and connectivity services across the Yorkshire and Humber region.”  Pulsant’s latest quarterly survey of UK IT and business decision maker revealed that that business decision makers are three times more likely than their IT counterparts to question cloud-only strategies. With business leaders questioning increasing hyperscale cloud costs and vendor exclusivity, IT leaders will need to explore hybrid alternatives including colocation and private cloud infrastructure. “Our platformEDGE infrastructure, in Rotherham and across the UK, is supporting the increasing number of business decision makers challenging cloud only strategies on cost and vendor lock-in grounds and their IT counterparts who see the limitations in the hyperscale model,” adds Ben. “The Rotherham data centre investment cements Pulsant’s domain expertise in the edge infrastructure market, adding further capacity to its platformEDGE infrastructure to reach businesses across the UK.”

CtrlS Datacenters lays out $2bn investment plan

CtrlS Datacenters has announced its new investment plan of $2bn over the next six years. The company has identified three key areas of focus as it looks to scale its operations, reaffirm its commitment to the region, and further establish its leadership position: Add 350MW data centres: With the massive surge in adoption of AI applications and cloud technologies, the demand for AI and cloud ready data centres is on the rise. The company will invest in key technologies and strategies and overall infrastructure design in its new hyperscale data centres. These will include: liquid cooling (direct-to-chip or immersion cooling), AI HVAC, AI optimised rack layout, high-efficiency power infrastructure, and will provide a plug-n-play environment for emerging technology service providers to grow their IT footprint seamlessly. The investment plan involves the addition of approximately 350MW capacity across new and existing hyperscale and edge data centres in both India and select Southeast Asian markets. Achieve net zero and carbon neutrality by 2030: The company is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2030. It is investing in 153MWp solar projects across three markets, that will generate 2,50,000MWh energy annually. This includes a 145MWp solar project in Maharashtra that will be fully owned and operated by the company. By 2025, it plans to invest in additional 300MWp projects. It also plans to achieve its net zero goals through a multi-pronged strategy, going beyond renewable energy. The company will further enhance its water conservation measures by deploying more advanced water recycling technologies in line with its goal of 100% usage of recycled water at all of its data centres. Double headcount by 2029: The company is strengthening the organisation by constantly hiring and skilling. It has brought onboard several industry veterans from global MNCs to strengthen its leadership team and drive its growth. The global leadership team received a boost with Royce Thomas (from Equinix) joining as President and Chief Business Officer; Ashish Ahuja (from Google) joining as Chief Technology Officer; Vipin Jain (from AWS) joining as President of Data Centre Operations; and Mohit Pande (from Jefferies) joining as Chief Financial Officer. 

Infratil and L&G Capital increase investment in Kao Data

Kao Data has announced that Infratil and Legal & General Capital have increased their equity stakes in Kao Data. Infratil will now hold a majority stake of 53%, Legal & General Capital will hold 32%, and Goldacre NOÉ Group, Kao Data’s founding investors, will hold 15%. Since 2021, Infratil and Legal & General Capital have together invested in Kao Data, growing the company from a single site data centre developer/operator, to a multi-site platform. The new shareholdings will provide streamlined ownership and additional funding for its further growth, accelerating its plans to scale across the UK and underpinning its mission to provide customers across the region with world-class and sustainable, high performance data centre infrastructure. "Technologies such as GPU-powered Generative AI and high-performance computing are driving transformative change across the sector, and it’s vital we continue to build out the Kao Data platform to the highest standards of performance, energy efficiency and sustainability, while retaining our position as one of the world’s leading data centre providers for advanced computing,” says Spencer Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer, Kao Data. “With our new capital structure and the ongoing support of our large, institutional investors, we believe Kao Data is perfectly placed to underpin the next wave of hyperscale and artificial intelligence innovation, during a time of exponential growth in digital infrastructure.”

KKR to acquire stakes in Singtel’s regional data centre business

Singtel and KKR have reached a definitive agreement, under which a fund managed by KKR will commit up to S$1.1bn for a 20% stake in Singtel’s regional data centre business. This investment puts the enterprise value of Singtel’s overall regional data centre business at S$5.5bn. KKR will have the option to increase its stake to 25% by 2027 at the pre-agreed valuation. The collaboration is a first between Singtel and KKR, and enables Singtel to tap on KKR’s expertise investing in data centres and critical telecommunication infrastructure globally in addition to capital. The proceeds from this transaction will be used to accelerate the expansion of the regional data centre business across ASEAN markets, including Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, while exploring markets like Malaysia and others. This will widen the business’ strategic choices, giving a variety of options to monetise in the future. Southeast Asia’s data centre market is expected to grow by 17% over the next five years compared to 12% for the rest of the world, with US$9bn to US$13bn in investments projected to flow into the region. While data centre capacity is poised to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 19% from 2021 to 2026, demand is expected to outpace supply driven by increased data consumption, enterprises transitioning to the cloud and the rapid rise of AI in the region. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand could see the biggest increase in capacity with Johor, in particular, benefiting from spill-over demand from Singapore due to the island state’s supply constraints. The growing need to handle high performance computing tasks, such as generative AI, will also spur a significant growth in GPU-powered data centres in the years to come. Click here for more latest news.

atNorth announces highest revenue to date

atNorth has announced a group income of SEK 560 million (EUR 53 million) as it publishes its 2022 annual accounts. This figure represents a 44% increase in revenue from 2021 and further growth is expected in the coming years.  The company currently operates six data centres based in Iceland, Sweden and Finland. It is planning further state-of-the-art sites in the coming years. atNorth‘s growth calls for extensive investment and it has secured access to capital for this purpose. The investment for the year 2022 amounted to about SEK 220 million (EUR 20 million), and it is already evident that the 2023 level of investment will be significantly higher. Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO of atNorth, says, "In recent years, we have built an enormous wealth of knowledge. Our customers value our services and it is core to atNorth's good reputation." He also commends the support of the company‘s sponsor, Partners Group, that acquired the majority of the company's shares at the beginning of 2022. As digital transformation and the use of AI and other big data projects escalates, businesses are becoming increasingly reliant on supercomputers to perform ever more complex calculations. The resulting need for high performance data centre and supercomputing services has led to an exponential increase in demand in recent years. atNorth continues to promote the Nordic region as a superlative location for investment in digital infrastructure, recently winning the ‘Tech Capital Location’ award for Iceland as a result of its advantageous climate, favourable business environment and cutting-edge infrastructure. Eyjólfur comments, “Iceland is truly on the map, and with our best-in-class data centres, outstanding customer service and proficient marketing communications, atNorth is proud to have created a desirable position in the market.”

STT GDC and Firmus to build sustainable AI factories

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has announced a significant investment into a global venture with Firmus Technologies. The venture is to be based in Singapore and will see the launch of a GPU-centric Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering focused on deep learning AI and visual computing workloads, to be known as Sustainable Metal Cloud (SMC). SMC will deliver bare-metal-service access to high-performance AI clusters, which include some of the world’s most advanced workload accelerators including GPUs and high-speed networking from NVIDIA for energy-efficient computing. It will leverage Firmus’ proprietary, scaled, immersion-cooled platform, the HyperCube, to deliver sustainable AI factories that are all at once sustainable, scalable, high-performance and cost-effective. Within the HyperCube, Firmus will operate a fleet of high-performance servers provided by OEM partners including Supermicro. It unlocks access to world-class AI tools and hardware in a highly available way. The SMC is being launched in Singapore, India and Australia in 2023, with the Singapore AZ (SIN01) expected to be live in H2 2023. The combination of Firmus’ platform, paired with STT GDC’s highly efficient data centre infrastructure, will result in AI workloads running with a lower PUE, lower CO2 emissions and higher petaflops per watt. “The compound growth in forecasted energy consumption is an existential threat to the data centre sector. Data centre operators and their customers must be prepared to embrace and support new cooling solutions and expand the services they offer beyond traditional air-cooled colocation if they are to host AI GPU platforms in a sustainable manner. The evolution of the data centre into AI factories of the future will fundamentally change the way that all infrastructure operators are thinking about the design and operation of their facilities. STT GDC’s foresight and long-term vision made them the ideal global partner for Firmus’ highly developed solution,” says Ted. “The future of data centres will rely on the ability to provide both exceptional performance and highly sustainable services at scale. From our beginnings in Singapore almost 10 years ago, we now have scaled the business to cover 10 geographies. We are immensely pleased to enhance our core co-location offering to include the latest GPU-based bare-metal services, empowering our customers with access to the next generation of high-performance computing which will be so critical in the AI revolution. These high-performance services are a key component of the critical infrastructure needed to support the plethora of AI use cases that will be critical to business, governments and society in years to come,” says Bruno Lopez, President and Group Chief Executive, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres.

Telehouse Thailand celebrates the opening of its new data centre

Telehouse has officially opened its first Thai data centre at the prime location of Rama 9 in Bangkok with an investment of $74 million, aiming to create a connectivity ecosystem and become the first purpose-built data centre to achieve 100% power supply by renewable energy in Thailand. The event was joined by Kazuya Nashida, Embassy of Japan in Thailand; Sonklin Ploymee, Deputy Secretary General; Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) and credible partners from Thailand and other countries to mark the opening in Bangkok. Bangkok is the newest location among 45 Telehouse locations in the world. Telehouse Thailand is its third footprint in south east Asia, with a building area of 9,000m2 and a 9.5MVA power capacity. With the location in the centre of Bangkok, the data centre focuses on Telehouse’s interconnection strategy, aiming to be the internet hub data centre where multiple telecommunication carriers and service providers interconnect and exchange data traffic domestically and internationally. In addition to the goal of developing and promoting the network system in Thailand, Telehouse Thailand is also keen on green environmental initiatives and to be the first data centre in Thailand to procure 100% renewable energy-based electricity, aligned with the Telehouse global target of achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2026.  Ken Miyashita, Managing Director of Telehouse Thailand, says, “We are very excited to announce and celebrate our official opening in Bangkok. With our location in the heart of the city, Telehouse Thailand will provide secure and reliable data centre services to act as a connectivity hub in south east Asia. We are ready to elevate data centre standards and contribute to the digital society in the country and region.”

Neterra listed as key data centre investor in Europe

Neterra has been recognised as one of the ‘Prominent Data Centre Investors’ in Europe alongside names such as Amazon Web Services, Facebook (Meta), Equinix, Google, Microsoft, NTT Global Data Centers, and Orange Business Services. The ranking is part of a research made by Arizton Advisory and Intelligence titled ‘The European Data Center Construction Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2023-2028.’ With nearly 30 years of experience in the global telecommunications market, Neterra is a trusted provider of data centre solutions and global connectivity for both the world's largest companies and small and medium-sized businesses. The company owns four data centres and provides first-class colocation, fast and secure connectivity, energy efficient cooling systems, top-notch equipment, servers, and support from a professional team 24/7. Neterra's data centres operate under the brand Sofia Data Center - SDC. Two of them are in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, on a common campus. They are built and equipped in accordance with the highest standards in the industry and provide their customers with connectivity with the largest telecom operators in the world. SDC Stolnik is part of Data Centre Park Stolnik - the largest data centre and telecommunications hub in south-eastern Europe. It offers unlimited colocation space and power, as well as specially designed crypto-mining rooms. SDC Ruse is the main point of presence of BFOR - the shortest optical route between Romania and Turkey. With its strategic location and reliable redundant connectivity, SDC Ruse is a suitable alternative to prevent the interruption of essential business processes during disasters and accidents. Through its data centres and already-established global network of more than 200 points of presence in more than 65 countries, Neterra provides a broad portfolio of services. Companies trust telecom for international connectivity, guaranteed business internet (DIA), global peering, DDoS protection, data centre services, rental servers, cloud solutions and more.

Manulife Investment Management acquires controlling interest in Serverfarm

Manulife Investment Management (Manulife IM) has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Serverfarm. The investment by Manulife IM, together with support from existing shareholders, will provide capital to Serverfarm to continue its expansion across north America, Europe, and Israel to capitalise on attractive market opportunities. Serverfarm currently operates a portfolio of eight data centres across north America, Europe and Israel that aggregate more than 1,500,000ft² and 125MW of IT capacity, and it has secured additional land for future data centre developments. “Avner and the Serverfarm team have built a high-quality data centre portfolio and growth platform that is well-positioned to capitalise on the strong secular tailwinds in the data centre market,” says Recep Kendircioglu, Global Head of Infrastructure, Manulife Investment Management. “We are excited about the company's future and our ability to support Serverfarm through its next phase of growth on behalf of our clients.” “Partnering with Manulife Investment Management, an investor that shares Serverfarm's vision for growth and customer service, will allow us to effectively address the next wave of demand from our existing and new customers,” says Avner Papouchado, Founder and CEO of Serverfarm. “Our new relationship with Manulife Investment Management provides Serverfarm with additional expertise and new capital to execute on a number of attractive development opportunities and give our customers a long-term growth runway.” The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023 after the satisfaction of customary closing conditions including the receipt of certain regulatory approvals.

Alibaba Cloud plans to strengthen global partnership ecosystem

Alibaba Cloud is set to further empower its ecosystem partners through a series of new initiatives, including the launch of an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Acceleration Program, a training empowerment programme for partners, as well as new incentives to reward partner excellency. “We are committed to growing together with our global partners and providing them with even stronger support to expand their businesses into southeast Asia and beyond,” says Edward Cai, Chief Commercial Officer, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence at the company's Partner Summit 2023 in Singapore. “All new initiatives underscore how much value we place on our partners. Together with our partners’ industry know-how, technology capabilities and market insights, we can deliver significant benefits to our customers.”  New initiatives to support partners’ growth Alibaba Cloud’s ISV Acceleration Program was launched to provide global ISVs with new financial incentives and more robust technical support to expand their business opportunities in Southeast Asia. As part of the program, Alibaba Cloud will help its ISV partners to optimise the marketplace listing fee on Alibaba Cloud’s marketplace platform, and expand the product sales through Alibaba Cloud’s sales team and its vast network of channel partners. Alibaba Cloud also pledges to enhance technical support for global ISV partners, offering comprehensive technical enablement resources to help them build, publish and operate their solutions on the cloud platform. In addition, the company will invest to co-develop customised products and solutions with its ISV partners. ISV partners including Neo4J, 6Estates, One2Cloud and SCash Global have already joined the acceleration program to get the most benefits from their partnership with Alibaba Cloud. At the same summit, Alibaba Cloud also announced the launch of a new training empowerment portal for global partners. The Alibaba Cloud Partner Empowerment Portal provides product and service training and certifications, educational content on topical technology developments, as well as resources and tools to increase partners’ service capabilities. The portal aims to empower 500 global partners including channel partners, Managed Service Partners (MSPs) and ISVs in the current financial year, with training topics covering cloud, AI, Web3 and more. To bring more tangible benefits to Alibaba Cloud’s partners outside China, the company also announced a series of new financial incentives including discounts and rebates for rewarding resellers and distributors as well as some joint go-to-market initiatives. This is part of the $1 billion investment that Alibaba Cloud announced in 2022 in order to support its global partners’ technology innovation and its market expansion. “Our new initiatives showcase our unwavering commitment to helping our global partners thrive and innovate on Alibaba Cloud,” says Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “Partners play an essential role in enhancing and delivering Alibaba Cloud’s services and offering to our global customers. Together with partners, we can bring world-class technologies, products and solutions to our customers for their greater business success.”  New partnership on security, blockchain and talent development During the summit, Alibaba Cloud also unveiled deeper collaboration with its ecosystem partners. It has announced its new collaboration with IBM to provide a security solution for businesses across APAC. The security solution integrates features of IBM’s security products - QRadar SIEM and QRadar SOAR - as well as Alibaba Cloud’s wide range of security capabilities. It provides services including real-time reporting and centralised visibility into the cloud environment to detect threats such as ransomware, insider threats and cloud attacks. The co-developed solution aims to mitigate mounting cyber security risks while creating a secure, stable and protected cloud environment for clients during their digital transformation journeys. Another collaboration unveiled is with Avalanche, providing a launchpad for businesses to rapidly deploy metaverses on the Avalanche public blockchain. Cloudverse is a one-stop solution for businesses to seamlessly customise, launch and maintain their own metaverse space, creating new dimensions for engaging with customers. Alibaba Cloud also announced collaboration with training partners to bolster talent development in Southeast Asia. With the target to train 100,000 general public talents in the region by the current financial year, the SEA Talent Empowerment Program aims to attract training partners to contribute to the talent development drive. The initial training partners include Rahi Systems (information technology services and solutions provider), Solutions for Asia (security service solution provider), Lightning Cloud (multi-cloud operation solution platform) and Edu360 Cloud (digital certification service platform).