Google's S'pore data centre starts rolling

GOOGLE'S data centre in Singapore went live last week, almost exactly two years after the search giant broke ground on the 2.45-hectare site in Jurong West.

The US$120 million facility is the latest in build-ups of data centres here as global tech companies choose to serve the region from Singapore-based centres.

For years, Microsoft's primary cloud data centre for the region has been based here while cloud giant Amazon started serving the Asia Pacific from Singapore since 2010.

BP has one of its four mega data centres in the world here, opened in 2005.

An indication of the number of data centres here is the power consumption dominated by them, according to Nicola Hayes, managing director of data centre analysis firm DCD Intelligence.

She said that 8 per cent of Singapore's energy is taken up by data centres. In other countries, this figure hovers at the 1.8 per cent mark, on average. "Singapore is small, and doesn't have huge manual industries like sprawling factories taking up power needs, so that number is higher here," she said.

The other factor pushing up power needs in Singapore is that almost a decade ago when some of the older data centres were built here, power efficiency wasn't the focus, she added. "It's expensive to be eco-friendly, but that's a clearer priority with newer equipment."

Singapore is a popular choice for many vendors because of its political stability and it generally being safe from natural disasters. Its location is crucial too, being central to the Asean region, and close to Hong Kong, a neighbouring hub for MNCs. As data centre distance affects speed and performance, companies try to locate their data centres as close to customers as possible.

Upon launching Singapore's data centre and another in Taiwan last week, Google's vice-president of data centres, Joe Kava, said in a statement that the focus on setting up more data centres in the region is due to the massive growth in Asia's Internet population.

"The number of Internet users in India doubled, from 100 million to 200 million (in two years). It took six years to achieve that milestone in the US," he said.

And according to Analysys Mason figures, mobile data traffic in emerging markets in the region are on track to rise 68 per cent in 2014, ahead of the global growth rate of 48 per cent, making this region the fastest-growing worldwide.

Ms Hayes said that Singapore is one of the more mature data centre markets in the region, having received investment early and on par with Western markets, as MNCs set up shop here.

Still, it continues to grow in usable data centre space, termed "white space", at 2 per cent per annum.

Elsewhere in the region, DCD Intelligence found that China now accounts for a whopping 30 per cent of data centre white space in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan. The country's white space growth is also at the highest in the region, at 24 per cent per year.

China also accounts for 28 per cent of all data centre power in the region.

All this data centre growth is being prompted by cloud computing's popularity, said Ms Hayes. She noted that cloud-computing use will continue to grow as the delivery mechanism improves and users get drawn to the cost savings associated with tapping into a third-party cloud, without having to invest and build their own data centres.

She said that more companies want to outsource their data centre requirements because of the need to chase the equipment refresh cycle constantly. "You can't really incrementally upgrade with every piece, so there is rip-and-replacing required for some upgrades. If you already have capex sunk in, this is not an easy decision," she said.

"A lot of the data centre money here is going into refitting, not going into finding new white space. Singapore has a lot of legacy equipment, she said.

She pointed to Facebook, saying that the company refreshes its kit every 18 months, way ahead of the typical five-year refresh cycle for most companies.

The aggressive refreshing is done to keep its data centre tip-top, but also more energy efficient, as new technology comes out.

"It's cheaper to get rid of your gear and just replace, because tech prices are coming down," she said.