Off-grid edge data centre operator Edge Centres is building its first site in Kuala Lumpur and is on the lookout for additional sites in Johor, Ipoh and Penang in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam.
This is the Australian company’s first facility outside Australia, it said. The Asian expansion follows Edge’s successful $12 million Series A fund raising, led by single investor Singapore-based Cloud Link Solutions (CLS). The Malaysian rollout will be in collaboration with Arus Restu Sdn Bhd, a new cable landing station operator, the company said.
Founder and CEO of Edge Centres Jonathan Eaves told CommsDay the strategic partnership between the firms will accelerate the rollout of its platform throughout Asia Pacific and importantly, in its home market as well. “Partnering with CLS was a key decision for us, as now not only do we deploy edge datacentres, we have access to corresponding cable landing stations,” he said.
“Edge Centres is on track to deploy ten facilities across Asia in additional markets that include Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines over the next 12 months, cementing it as the largest, most advanced edge data centre business in APAC.”
Eaves said Malaysia was the natural first choice given its CLS’s home meaning support and engineers and close by. CLS director Ronnie Lim told CommsDay “As the fastest growing edge datacentre company in Asia Pacific, Edge Centres is paving the digital path for 4.3 billion people. Edge datacentre growth is critical to the growth and rollout of 5G technology and we are thrilled that Edge Centres selected Cloud Link Solutions as the investor for its Series A.”
“Having a partner to localise in Asia is the key to our success. We’ve got the building in KL and we hope to launch it in the next four weeks,” he said. “Most of the equipment has already been ordered. And then we’re looking for two further sites, one in Johor and one in Penang; these will be our first three Edge locations in Asia,” stated Eaves.
He further added that the timing was perfect because so many cables are being announced and constructed across Asia and partnering with a company that owns and operates them means Edge Centres can become a cable landing solution. “Edge itself will operate as an edge data centre business but it will also now become the support and augmentation for landing stations across Asia as and when they roll out different cable systems,” he said.
