NTT unveils fifth data centre in Malaysia

Henrick Choo (NTT)

NTT has officially launched a new data centre in Malaysia, more than 14 months since first revealing intentions to build a fifth facility locally to meet increasing hyperscaler and high-end enterprise demand.

Located within NTT Cyberjaya Campus, Cyberjaya 5 (CBJ5) spans 107,000 square feet and houses 6.5MW of critical IT load, running as Tier IV ready to provide customers with “flexible and scalable” power and a cooling solution of up to 15kW/rack. In addition, CBJ5 operates a cooling wall system designed to offer enhanced power and cost efficiency to support “high density” hyperscalers as well as “heavy corporate users” in Malaysia.

“The demand for data storage and managed hosting services is expected to grow exponentially across Malaysia,” said Henrick Choo, CEO of Malaysia at NTT.

“This fifth data centre will meet the expanding needs of organisations to reach their digital business objectives, in particular the financial services sector, as our data centre complies with the Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) guideline set by Bank Negara Malaysia. We hope to play a key role in providing the vital data capacity at a high speed to keep Malaysia’s digital ecosystems and the digital economy ticking.”

As of July 2020, Malaysia’s digital economy totalled more than RM270 billion, equating to approximately 18 per cent of national GDP. With plans in place to accelerate transformation agendas now underway - triggered further by a tumultuous Covid-19 period - NTT is attempting to assume a lead role in supporting digital economy efforts across the country.

“NTT in Malaysia has been successfully operating the Cyberjaya campus data centre for over 24 years,” added Hiroshi Oka, Ambassador of Japan to Malaysia. “Its expansion and growth are testimonies to Malaysia’s success in becoming the regional data centre hub in ASEAN.

“I believe the launch of CBJ5 is timely and it will certainly attract more international investors and enterprises to Malaysia as a business and economic hub due to its strong digitalisation efforts and strategic location within Southeast Asia.”

According to Oka, the launch will be “instrumental” in placing Malaysia at the ‘Heart of Digital ASEAN’ by 2025, as outlined by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

The data centre footprint expansion in Malaysia also represents part of ongoing efforts to drive growth via NTT’s Global Data Centres division, which operates the third-largest data centre platform in the world across 20 countries and regions.

As outlined by Ryuichi Matsuo - executive vice president of Global Data Centres at NTT - Malaysia is one of the "prime data centre markets" in the region due to the "abundant availability of resources and favourable government policies" concerning data centre infrastructure.

“NTT places Asia Pacific as a tactical key region, and Malaysia - a strategic hub for the submarine cables operated by NTT such as the new MIST3 cable system, as well as the existing Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) and Asia Pacific Gateway (APG),” Matsuo said. “Furthermore, CBJ5 will drive business opportunities in Asia through the upcoming MIST cable system which will link all our large-scale data centres in the region.

“The pandemic also illustrated the importance of effective connectivity and reliable infrastructure to ensure business continuity. NTT’s global data centre platform offers flexible, scalable and secure infrastructure along with a full-stack of customisable solutions that clients can utilise to support their digital transformation needs and maintain critical applications in a comprehensive, hybrid IT environment.”

Meanwhile, NTT's new campus in Bekasi, Indonesia will be capable of 45 MW of "critical IT load" once fully developed. Under the banner of Indonesia Jakarta 3 Data Centre, the new facility is expected to become the largest data centre in Indonesia with plans in place to open during the first half of 2021.