Singapore-based SpaceDC, announced today that it has opened its inaugural data center facility, JAK2, in Jakarta, Indonesia. The company wants to tap into the country’s growing digital market.
“With Indonesia having Southeast Asia’s largest population, and the region’s largest digital economy, it only made sense for us to open our first facility in this market,” CEO Darren Hawkins told KrASIA. He saw that country is in a strong position to lead the region as a digital economic powerhouse.
The data centre was established in partnership with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, and certified as a 1.45 MW Tier III facility by global data center authority Uptime Institute. JAK2 is equipped with onsite power generators and transformers, along with a N+1 power back up system which ensures system availability in the event of component failure.
Furthermore, JAK2 has on-site office spaces, meeting rooms, and storage rooms, enabling clients to work directly in the facility. Together with this launch, SpaceDC also started the construction of JAK1, a larger 24MW Tier III facility, which is set to launch in 2021.
A growing market for the data center and cloud industry
Cloud and data center service providers have been eyeing Indonesia, as the country sees rapid growth in its digital ecosystem. In June, Google launched its cloud services in Jakarta. Chinese tech juggernaut Alibaba Group, who already has two centers in the country, announced plans to open its third data center in early 2021.
Microsoft also tried to strengthen its presence in the cloud sector by investing in e-commerce platform Bukalapak. The company is required to adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform.
KrASIA talked with Hawkins about why he chose Jakarta as SpaceDC’s first base, along with Indonesia’s data center market potential.
KrASIA (Kr): Prior to this launch, did you have experience working with Indonesian clients?
Darren Hawkins (DH): Besides connectivity, JAK2 serves as a launchpad for Indonesia companies to connect to the wider Southeast Asia market. We look forward to establishing more partnerships with local stakeholders. Collectively as a team, we’ve had experience working with Indonesian clients from a variety of different industries. In addition, we have appointed Elisabeth Simatupang as SpaceDC’s Country Manager for Indonesia. She brings with her more than 20 years of experience in the data center and critical infrastructure industries, working for clients such as AWS, Bali Towers, Telekom, Siemens, Nokia, and Hutchison. We’re confident that our leadership and operational team will help meet the needs of the Indonesian market.
Kr: How big is the data center market potential in Indonesia and Southeast Asia that you decided to launch JAK2?
DH: As a destination for hyperscale data center investments, Indonesia has shown remarkable development in e-commerce and cloud adoption. Within the next five years, Indonesia’s data center market is expected to grow at 11% CAGR between 2019 to 2025. We recognize this partly through the vibrant digital startup community that already exists. Gojek, Traveloka, and Tokopedia, are good examples of Indonesia making great advancements in driving Indonesia’s digital economy.
The government has also been taking large strides to boost Indonesia’s digital economy as a part of its 2020 Go Digital vision, as highlighted with its recently completed Palapa Ring Project, providing 4G networks across the country in a bid to improve connectivity and bolster economic development.
Data centers are the backbone of the region’s digital economies and is poised to play a key role in the development of the ICT sector. We see a fantastic opportunity for growth in Indonesia as it becomes a significant player in the digital economy. That is the main reason why SpaceDC decided to build its hyperscale data network in Jakarta.
Kr: In Jakarta, there are already big players like Alibaba Cloud, Google, and local ones like Telkomsigma. What is your strategy to compete with them?
DH: Companies like Ali Cloud would also be working with data center providers like SpaceDC to deploy their data center footprint.
SpaceDC continues to hold on to our entrepreneurial roots and stand apart from our competitors by being agile, adaptable, and keeping the customer at the heart of our business. We established a team of experts with a combined 60 years of data center experience, deep knowledge of the industry and local know-how of the Indonesian technology ecosystem. These will prove invaluable for our clients as we continue to drive the growth of our data center campus to be the best in Asia.
Because of our strategic location, our data center campus has 11 service providers, diverse connectivity and great interconnection to our site. This ensures a resilient campus network for our customers—all of which have links with Indonesia’s biggest transmission backbone project to deliver reliable network connectivity and flexibility. This would enable us to stand out in Indonesia by providing an interconnected platform that helps make managing data footprints across regions easier and more efficient for businesses.
Kr: What are the benefits you offer to companies using your service? Once completed, how would JAK2 and JAK1 complement each other?
DH: We built JAK2 with scale, reliability and efficiency in mind. With a dedicated onsite transformer and strategic physical location sharing the same grid as Soekarno-Hatta international airport; our facility boasts a 99.982% reliability that is underscored by resiliency and stability.
To provide assurance to our clients that their data is safe and secure, JAK2 has 24/7 onsite security personnel along with security measures such as cardkey access control and retinal scans. A Selective Calalytic Reduction (SCR) unit was also installed to lower the carbon emissions produced by the power generation.
Lastly, our Tier III certification was provided by Uptime Institute, a global data center authority. This affirms our commitment to meet the latest and highest level of infrastructure performance across the globe.
To complement JAK2 and continue SpaceDC’s approach to connectivity, we will also be launching JAK1 in 2021. JAK1 is a 24MW Tier III facility that will provide higher performance specifications and larger capacity for customers that are ready to take that next step. In addition to the fact that they are both on the same campus, we are able to help customers deploy their data center footprint in JAK2 today and have the option to continue to grow next year when JAK1 is ready. This scalability across the same campus reduces latency and effectively lowers the total cost of ownership to our customers. Both data campuses are representative of our commitment to supporting customers who are looking to grow their digital infrastructure in Indonesia and beyond.
