Hi-octane discussions and celebrations mark region’s most anticipated cloud and datacenter event

Singapore Cloud & Datacenter Convention 2021 (SGCDC 2021) was held at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center on 1st December. The flagship event of W.Media welcomed 690 of Singapore’s most senior cloud and datacenter professionals and 30+ industry speakers from Facebook, Google, Alibaba, Grab, Digital Realty, Schneider Electric and more.  It was an amazing gathering after a gap of two years due to the pandemic where physical events are being restricted. The day was made possible by 20+ sponsors, including top data center providers and vendors such as Schneider Electric, Digital Realty, Eaton, Data Center First, Onion Technology, and more.

“I’m really happy, and I talked to most of the guys I met just now, that we finally have an event which is not over a video conference. Everything is changing in the data center industry, there is magnificent growth coming. We need to rethink what our customers want and redesign data centres,” says Wong Ka Vin, CEO & Co-Founder of Data Center First Pte Ltd.

“[Due to the moratorium in Singapore], data center growth is already happening in neighbouring countries, so we are already seeing that. However one of the more complicated questions now is – will new workloads appear in other countries, and what will be the architecture of the Cloud?” says Ras Scollay, SVP Asia of DCI Data Centers.

View the full playlist of interviews at SGCDC 2021 here.

Evening Celebration: APAC Cloud & Datacenter Awards Ceremony & Gala 

The finale of the day was star-studded with the black-tie event welcoming 125 top cloud and datacenter executives.

The ceremony was kick-off by a heartwarming speech by W.Media’s Co-Founder, Vincent Liew. “Tonight we are recognizing those teams, individuals and projects that have best demonstrated the innovation, sustainability and leadership that has shaped our industry across this challenging period. We received more than 200 entries and were overwhelmed by the response and desire to participate from our industry – it is exciting to see the pride and dedication in all of the projects submitted,” says Liew.

A video documentary titled ‘The Future of Data Centers‘ was launched at the ceremony to signify the importance of recognizing innovations and excellence in this mission critical industry. This notion has also led some of the largest data center brands in the industry, including Socomec, Eaton and more, to support heavily of the awards.

“Because of these awards [we get to see] many data centers came up with innovations, like [efficiency] awareness and energy storage, and these are innovations that will help reduce the power [usage] of data centers. The winners deserve the award for sure – they come with energy and sustainability innovation. For the rest of data centers, they should be aggressive with new innovations, and do not be frightened to be trying new stuff.  Data centers have a lot of legacy equipment,” says  Jimmy Yam, VP – Electrical Sector, East Asia of Eaton.

“Data center industry is here to grow for the next 8 to 10 years. We expect to see a CAGR of 13-15%. The challenge today is how we can drive sustainability and green energy to put in place the technology house, so let’s work together towards this direction as an industry,” says Andy Ng, General Manager of Socomec. 

The innovations and excellence we see in the industry today is phenomenal. With that, the evening concluded with 53 winners announced – check out the full list here.

View the full playlist of interviews at the awards ceremony here.