Data center developers from foreign countries are witnessing a high demand for data centers in the Philippines. A majority of these developers are already present in the country and are actively seeking appropriate locations, be it lands or buildings, to construct their data centers.
According to Carl Dizon, JLL Philippines’ senior analyst for capital markets, the growth started with telcos needing data for their own operations. The exponential advancement in internet technologies within the past decade resulted in data center demand from not just telcos, but both enterprise and hyperscale developers.
Taking into account the Philippines’ geography, Min Aung, JLL Philippines’ director for data centers, said that the ideal land size is at least 10,000 square meters (sqm) for greenfield and 6,000 sqm for brownfield, preferably in an industrial zone. Also, data centers need a minimum 34.5 kilovolts of power supply feed, access to water supply and network service providers.
Min also said that the Philippines is still young as a data center market but opportunities abound and in order to jump into the data center business, there needs to be a basic understanding of their technical, stringent requirements.
“To keep up with the demand, we have to ensure that data center projects here keep working 24/7 by improving access to networks and utilities,” Min added.
The Philippines is seen as a viable market for data centers because of its digitization initiatives and growing use of e-commerce.
Earlier this year, Digital Edge announced the availability of its new 10MW data center in Manila, NARRA 1, which offers 2,200 cabinets and will become the largest carrier-neutral and most energy efficient data center in operation in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Evolution Data Centres (EDC) has signed a joint venture agreement with a local engineering and infrastructure firm Megawide to design, build and operate a carrier-neutral data center in the country.
Moreover, the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has welcomed the proposed establishment of two hyperscale data centers in Luzon by ENDEC Development Corp. and Diode Ventures.
According to the President, the projects would enable the Philippines to catch up with other countries in terms of digitalization.