Two Japan-based data centre providers have invested US$164 million (5.5 billion baht) in Thailand to build and expand data centres, cashing in on the trend of digital transformation and the exponential growth of cloud computing.
Telehouse recently opened its first data centre in Thailand with an investment of $74 million, while NTT invested 3 billion baht through NTT Global Data Centers Corporation to develop its newest and largest data centre in Thailand. The latter's new Bangkok 3 Data Center (BKK3) is slated to start operations in the second half of 2024.
Thailand has attracted investment from global cloud and data centre providers to expand their footprints.
Global players' data centre investments in Thailand began many years ago, with the pioneers including Tencent Cloud, Huawei and NTT, followed last year by Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
In May, Telehouse, which is 66% owned by KDDI, opened its first data centre in the country on Rama IX Road in Bangkok.
Bangkok is the company's latest location out of 45 global sites. Telehouse Thailand is also its third footprint in Southeast Asia with a building area of 9,000 square metres and a 9.5 megavolt amperes power capacity.
The data centre focuses on the interconnection strategy, aiming to be an internet hub where multiple telecommunication carriers and service providers interconnect and exchange data traffic domestically and internationally.
Ken Miyashita, managing director of Telehouse (Thailand), said the company will provide secure and reliable data centre services to act as a connectivity hub in Southeast Asia. The company is ready to elevate data centre standards and contribute to the digital society in the country and region.
Telehouse Thailand currently has over 10 partners such as telecom operators, cloud and content providers that support the ecosystem of "interconnection" in the data centre.
On March this year, NTT, an IT infrastructure and services company, announced an investment of 3 billion baht through NTT Global Data Centers Corporation for the development of its newest and largest data centre in Thailand. The new BKK3 will start operations in the second half of 2024 and will provide a maximum IT capacity of 12 megawatts across approximately 4,000 sq m of IT space when fully built out.
Located on the Eastern Economic Corridor's Amata City Chonburi industrial estate, the new infrastructure caters to hyperscalers and enterprises.
Takeshi Kimura, managing director of NTT Global Data Centers Holding Asia Pte, said the economic activity based on the digital infrastructure available in South Asia is changing rapidly.
The company plans to offer BKK3 services around the second half of 2024 on a site adjacent to the Bangkok 2 Data Center (BKK2).
"We plan to expand further in this area to create a critical infrastructure platform that supports the growth of Thailand's digital economy, including the surge in electronic transactions and data consumption," Mr Kimura said.
The new Bangkok data centre follows the Jakarta 3 Data Center in Indonesia, which was completed in April 2022, and the Cyberjaya 6 Data Center in Malaysia, scheduled for completion around mid-2023.
Sutas Kongdumrongkiat, chief executive of NTT in Thailand, which is also responsible for its operations in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, said Asia-Pacific is a key growth region for NTT. As Thailand makes progress with digital transformation, the need for infrastructure to handle high volume real-time data transmission becomes increasingly important.
"The demand for data storage and managed hosting services is expected to grow dramatically across Thailand. BKK3 will accommodate the needs of clients, particularly cloud service providers and the financial industry, which require flexible facility designs to help them achieve their business objectives", said Suthipat Lueprasert, chief executive of NTT Global Data Centers (Thailand).
Mr Suthipat added that in tandem with the existing BKK2, the company is continuing its smart operations, scheduling and technology to improve power usage efficiency.
"We continue to adopt green energy into our data centres and keep sustainability in our core planning. NTT will continue to play a key role in providing high-speed data capacity to support Thailand's digital ecosystems," he said.
The new data centre is being constructed in line with NTT Group's vision of "Green Innovation" towards 2040. The framework will help NTT achieve net-zero emissions across its operations by 2030 and its value chain by 2040, in lockstep with Thailand's own commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Thai organisations are expected to spend 54.8 billion baht on public cloud services in 2023, up 31.7% from 2022, according to the latest forecast from Gartner.
