APAC and its Rise as a Data Center Hub

Traditionally, the APAC region has two distinct segments of the data center. One serves regional demand, like Hong Kong and Singapore, and the other mainly serves domestic markets like Tokyo, Shanghai, and Australia

Apac CIOOutlook | Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Fremont, CA: As digitalization grips businesses across the world, the APAC region has emerged as one of the fastest developing data center regions globally. A study by Structure research shows that the colocation market for the Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.2 percent from 2018 - 2024. The majority of this demand comes from global cloud providers, social media platforms, media content, and video streaming, e-commerce platforms, and banking.

Traditionally, the APAC region has two distinct segments of the data center. One serves regional demand, like Hong Kong and Singapore, and the other mainly serves domestic markets like Tokyo, Shanghai, and Australia. At the same time, there are several Tier II markets like India and Indonesia with a high population growth rate and low data center capacity.

Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.

Singapore as a Gateway to Asia

The majority of multinational organizations looking to set up a base in the APAC region set their sights on either Hong Kong or Singapore, both of which are among the largest data centers in the APAC region. Singapore has experienced a front-row seat to the rapid growth of the APAC data center market in recent years. Despite being a small country stretching over just 278 square miles, the country has nearly 60 data centers with a data center footprint of 357 MW.

These statistics make Singapore a data center haven for organizations. Having a data center in Singapore means secure connectivity to all countries in the region with multiple redundancy options and the lowest latency. The country also has the largest concentration of subsea cables in Asia and offers excellent connectivity to the rest of Asia and the world. These features, combined with its disaster-free location, stable political climate, and pro-business climate, make it an obvious choice for most organizations.

Singapore's most potent competitor for multinationals aiming to establish growth in the APAC region is Hong Kong. The area is traditionally positioned as the gateway to China, as well as the APAC region. The present political relations with China and Singapore’s highly autonomous nature have led to an increase in demand in the region.

More in News

Evolving Role of Surveillance in Security

Surveillance cameras are commonly perceived as vigilant observers, aimed at deterring crime. In reality, many of these cameras serve a passive function. They primarily act as a deterrent or offer valuable evidence when incidents occur. For instance, if your vehicle is stolen, you often hear, “Check the CCTV footage.” Although they are not constantly actively monitoring, these cameras play a crucial role in promoting safety and providing insights after an event has taken place. This scenario is however changing, and fast. Artificial intelligence is aiding surveillance cameras with the appropriate acumen to help the ‘watchful eyes’ to analyze live video footages, without requiring any human to govern it. This can be highly beneficial for public safety as it would help police and first responders to spot crimes and accidents easily. On the other hand, biometrics, which has remained a part of the security narrative for years now, is maturing evermore rapidly; allowing for retinal scanning, facial recognition, and even sitting posture, heartbeat, and body scent to recognize a human being. The age of privacy may have fallen behind, but security is still something everyone has to consider. Turning at the corner of a new reality, where abundantly available personal information makes it possible for criminals to target practically anyone, one would need to do more than just ‘employ’ the latest in security technology. Alongside, drones, which have been in use in the consumer market for quite some time now, have only recently started to become more common as a method of surveillance and security. Security drones can do everything from snapping pictures of suspicious or illegal activities, to actually chase down and follow potentially dangerous suspects. Some surveillance drones can hit speeds as fast as 50 miles per hour, and may also have the advantage of LED or infrared lights to better capture pictures and video. These new advances suggest public life can still be secure in an increasingly exposed world. Check out: Top Drone Technology Companies ...Read more

Strategized SEO for Profit

Online retail businesses need to maintain a lot of pages, making their SEO more complicated and time-consuming. Moreover, these online retailers need to adopt cutting-edge SEO solution for better results as search engines are incessantly regulation their algorithms. It not only optimizing the actual content of a company's website but also external factors such as the quality of the links that are pointing to the website and the company's social media presence. Visitors need to search for products based on a variety of different factors, and every product should come up when searched. Thus retail businesses have pages dedicated to every product that they sell. Companies should always try to obtain one of the top spots in the search engines to increase traffic, gain instant trust and decrease advertising costs. They should include the right keywords in their content, keeping in mind the types of words that people often type in. Companies can take the help of different keyword tools that help figure out which keywords and search phrases people use when they look for the items available in the store. To make it more beneficial, images can be added to the website which helps people get a better idea of what they are buying. Moreover, mages can come with a description and relevant keywords. Creating a more extensive site helps it rank better since search engines tend to favor larger sites over smaller ones. Additional content such as blog posts, interesting articles, or testimonials from past customers can also be included. Product reviews can also be beneficial for helping people find the products that they need. And last but not the least, the website should be mobile friendly and should be shared on as many social media platforms as possible. ...Read more

Enhancing Customer Insights: The Impact of AI in E-Commerce

AI existed mainly in the realm of science fiction. Recent years have brought a significant shift in this perception. Today, numerous industries have embraced AI technology, allowing them to engage with customers in ways that were previously unimaginable. The evolution highlights the growing importance of AI in enhancing communication and interaction between businesses and their clientele, marking a notable change in how companies operate and interact in the modern marketplace. While many industries have witnessed profound growth owing to the services of AI, e-commerce deserves a special mention because it has created several viable portals through AI to enhance the interaction channels of customers. During purchasing AI can act as a virtual assistant and give customers shopping notifications and personalized recommendations of the best-suited products. With AI machine learning, e-commerce portals can learn and remember customers’ preference so that it can recommend purchase items without doing any manual work. Many e-commerce providers also used chatbots to check the status of any specific order and ask questions if they have any doubt related to that account. Chatbots enables customers to make personalized service they need without waiting for a long time. The bots can scan the online profiles of customers and respond to their queries them in real time. Apart from rendering personalized customer services, bots also bring forth customer intelligence capabilities. If an e-commerce company uses chatbots for scanning customers’ profiles and purchasing history, they get a lot of data to improve their offerings and be competitive in the market. It also helps industries to leap ahead in the market race through keeping a competitive price with market standards. Used in almost every industry today, one can predict that more and more AI be leveraged in the coming years to determine the predictability of customer behavior. ...Read more

E-Commerce Reshaping the Cities

With commerce becoming e-commerce, major changes have been seen in the ways cities are being designed. According to experts, including automated vehicles and drone technology will drive the efficiencies of the e-commerce industry . Many automobile companies have already started integrating automated vehicles with drones. For instance, Mercedes has designed an automated vehicle with drones that fly high like an aircraft for delivery. With technology reaching every corner, e-commerce industry is chasing automated vehicles and drones to enhance delivery and cost efficiencies. The utilization of automated vehicles and drones with smaller vehicles can optimize delivery and routing and make effective use of the road space. According to experts, light vehicles will lead to more free space. With the advent of technology for automated vehicles and drones , organizations are trying to connect it with e-commerce. Customer acceptance and business models are key factors and because of which automation will continue to happen at a faster rate in e-commerce landscape. In addition to the business models and customer acceptance, government regulations also play an important role. Apart from the urban areas, the non-urban areas will also see a major prospect for automated vehicles and drone delivery in the days to come. Transport links like electric charging infrastructure will go through a drastic change as automated vehicles, drones, and electric charging infrastructure are expected to go hand in hand. With retail having a solid experiential part, e-commerce is likely to impact physical stores, and the degree to which conventional bricks-and-mortar will move to delivery following in-store shopping, and the suggestions on request, and how and where retail happens in the cities. Check out: Top Drone Technology Companies ...Read more