The data center sector in the Philippines is facing exciting times. Pandemic lockdowns triggered an increased need from local companies to shift servers and Information Technology (IT) equipment from their premises to data centers. Foreign groups are also looking at establishing their facilities in the country.
Recently, Globe entered into a $350-million joint venture partnership with ST Telemedia Global Data Centres and Ayala Corporation to develop and operate data centers. Globe already has several data centers but believes that the joint venture will help it become a leader in the space.
Data centers are dedicated buildings usually used by customers who manage their servers and applications but would like to outsource colocation and management to reduce costs. Users only have to pay a colocation fee instead of putting up their facility and handling operations.
Globe data centers provide IT personnel, network cabling, security measures, cooling systems, fire suppression, uninterrupted power supply and generator, power, and lot space.
Globe, for instance, also offers full-function office amenities to allow enterprises to continue mission-critical operations in the event of disasters. At the same time, it provides a redundant, stable, secure, and high-speed connection to hosted environments, with rate-limiting capabilities up to 1G.
“Many companies would benefit from outsourcing their data center hosting and management so they can focus more on their business rather than on day-to-day operations. This is part of Globe’s mission to support the growth of businesses, especially as we strive to recover from the pandemic,” said Ernest Cu, Globe President and CEO.
Those who prefer less work could take advantage of cloud services. Customers can get Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google cloud subscriptions through Globe. They can either manage their own workloads or work with a team of cloud experts at Cascadeo, Globe’s cloud company.
Aside from helping corporations, data centers contribute to the growth of different industries, particularly real estate. The sector also generates local and foreign investments and more employment opportunities.
Globe’s venture into the data center sector is part of its innovation efforts in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly UN SDG No. 9, highlighting the roles of infrastructure and innovation as crucial drivers of economic growth and development.
Real estate firm Santos Knight Frank forecasts that data centers are the next high-growth segment of the property market. Already, SpaceDC, a Singapore-based visionary data center provider, has announced that it is working with global real estate services firm JLL to build the largest hyperscale data center in the country, which is expected to open in 2022.
