One of the countries that has been getting a lot of attention among the data center operators and end users is Indonesia. Due to the surge in electronic transactions and internet content in the last two years, Indonesia has experienced a significant increase in its digital traffic. This, coupled with a growing population and a rapid rise in startups, has led to a surge in demand for data centers.
But Indonesia does have its own set of challenges with earthquakes at the top of the list. As recent as April 2, 2023, a magnitude-5.8 offshore earthquake occurred near West Nusa Tenggara province, which is 70km away from Bima City.
Skills shortage is another concern in Indonesia and according to the research by McKinsey, a big contribution to labour shortage is skills gap. An estimated 17.2 million Indonesians will require digital competency training to keep up with technological progress this year.
Hendra Suryakusuma, Chairman of IDPRO Data Center Association, stated that there are steps that have been adopted to address these issues. Founded in 2018, IDPRO works towards creating policies and regulations that support the development of data centers in Indonesia and adopting best practices in data center operations and management.
Ring of Fire
Earthquake is a major concern in Indonesia and is a constant threat to small and large structures built in the country. Indonesia is located near the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a series of active volcanoes and seismic hotspots that encircle the Pacific Ocean. This region is characterized by frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Despite the surrounding threats, Hendra stated that most of the data centers in Indonesia are built to withstand strong tremors.
“Based on several data centers that were built in Indonesia, many have been building their facility that can withstand an earthquake as strong as 8.5 on the Richter Scale. Reinforcements are required for these structures to withstand such tremors,” said Hendra.
“Earthquake is a common threat here and we have taken steps to ensure our members fully understand the prone areas and have the right measures in place,” he added.
Skills Shortage
Skills shortage is a serious threat realised by the industry and according to Hendra, has led to occurrences of engineers being hijacked by newer companies within the industry.
“Skills shortage is a big problem here. One of the biggest data center players here had several of their engineers hijacked by newer players in the market,” he said.
“We hope that this trend will not become worse, so as a result of this, we have taken steps with the government to address this problem in the industry,” added Hendra.
Skills Shortage Solution and Government Support
The Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, launched the Digital Talent Scholarship (DTS) programme that covers cloud computing engineering modules. Students and participants will receive certification from Google and Amazon. The DTS is a programme that aims to increase the quantity and quality of tech talents in the digital and IT sector in the country.
“In collaboration with IDPRO, we hope that more qualified talent within the data center industry will emerge to address the skills shortage issue through the digital talent initiative,” said Hendra.
The demand for a skilled workforce will continue to increase as more data centers are being constructed. The government has already commenced its plan to build four national data centers for government institutions in the country.
“In 2019, the government instructed respective government institutions to stop building data centers. The government will build and provide the data centers for the institutions. This was part of the new regulation,” said Hendra.
Indonesia is a hot spot for data centers and preparedness to face on-going challenges in the country is key to ensure the industry continues to boom in the future.