A joint venture (JV) firm between local telco Globe and Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) is expanding its footprint in Asia with the development of its largest data center in the Philippines.
STT GDC Philippines, on the occasion of its first anniversary of formation as JV, revealed plans for the development of an expansive data center campus, which stands as the largest project undertaken by STT GDC across its global portfolio to date.
The new data center campus, STT Fairview, will comprise over 83,000 square meters of gross floor area across four buildings, offering a development potential of 124MW of IT load capacity once fully built out.
It is strategically positioned within Quezon City with access to nearby substations, as well as critical telecommunications, transportation links, and logistics, business and industry hubs.
“With the Philippine digital industry set to grow at a projected compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% through 2030, we are seeing rapidly growing demand for high-quality colocation services in the Philippines as both cloud service providers and enterprises alike continually expand their business platforms to meet consumers’ evolving demand for low-latency digital services,” said Carlo Malana, chief executive officer of STT GDC Philippines.
STT Fairview will include ready network connections to STT Makati, providing customers of the new data center campus immediate access to a selection of local and international network service providers, Internet exchanges, and submarine cable systems.
Sustained growth is projected across Asean and the Philippine digital economy is seen to be a forerunner, with e-commerce expected to propel the country’s gross merchandise value (GMV) to $35 billion in 2025. The local digital economy is also expected to grow twice as fast as GDP through 2030.
“With the Philippines’ digital transformation gaining headway, STT GDC’s new facility will be an important addition in the data center space in the country, where the market is underserved. This will provide crucial support for the growing digital industry not just in the country but also in the region, and will set a new standard of sustainability-driven data centers in the Philippines,” said Globe Group president and CEO Ernest Cu.
STT Fairview will support the company’s sustainability goals with a market-leading design power usage effectiveness (PUE) and a host of sustainable features:
- Embodied carbon reductions – The use of solutions such as hollow core concrete slabs, recycled steel and HDPE piping is among the many topics being explored which will lead to reductions in embodied carbon of the development.
- Liquid cooling-readiness – The new data center will have the ability to house liquid-cooled solutions and servers based on customer requirements. Liquid immersion cooling supports high performance computing applications such as AI, and can offer data centers and its customers, particularly those operating in the tropics, a sustainability boost by substantially reducing energy consumption and water consumption.
- AI readiness – The facility will be ready to leverage AI and machine learning (ML) technology and advanced analytics to improve the data center’s operational efficiency as well as optimize energy use to reduce its overall carbon footprint.
- Built to global industry standards – This new data center will be built to specifications that will meet international standards such as a LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council (USGBC), Uptime Institute Tier III, and TIA-942 Rated 3.
STT GDC Philippines already operates five data centers with a total IT capacity of 22MW, with more than 95% of its power coming from renewable energy sources.
Bruno Lopez, president and group CEO of STT GDC, said a much powerful data center is needed in the country because there are not enough submarine cables which connects the Philippines to the rest of the world.
“We are at 60MW currently for the whole of the Philippines, which cannot meet the requirements for 120 million Filipinos. This will even grow in the future,” said Lopez when asked if the country needs a 124MW data center facility.
