Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 01 | Page 55

FEATURE: DATA CENTERS enter the region first, but also the ones that are able to prove themselves to be capable of meeting current and future customer requirements. Ensuring environmental responsibility Climate change is one of the most important challenges faced by the world today. As a power intensive industry, the data center sector does hold a significant responsibility in continually looking to develop more environmentally friendly practices. Environmental responsibility requires us to continuously rethink the way we design and operate data center facilities. All the while, we must strike a synergy between sustainability and business goals if companies are to keep up with capacity demands and remain competitive. The continued expansion in APAC presents operators with a real opportunity to boost sustainability goals through new builds. This way, data center firms can address sustainability and efficiency from the very beginning, incorporating efficiency measures from the planning and design stages, right the way through to construction and operation. We must strive for absolute efficiency across all areas of our facility lifecycles and it is much easier to do so with new facilities rather than by retrofitting older data centers. However, if the industry is to reach the worthy goal of 100% sustainability, we must also invest in alternative energy sources such as solar and hydro-electric power. Procurement of green renewable energy is key to drastic reductions in the industry’s carbon footprint. This year has thrown a great number of challenges our way. Yet despite the disruption, APAC is continuing to be one of the most exciting regions for hyperscale operators around the world. Whatever the future has in store, one thing is certain, APAC is looking more connected than ever before. • proactively anticipate and diagnose infrastructure and network issues to avoid damaging downtime. Opportunities abound in APAC Despite the disruptions we have seen in the past few months, the APAC and Indian data center markets, in particular, are proving to be key areas for growth as large global and local companies continue to see cities such as Mumbai and Tokyo as attractive locations to do business. As such, these regions are seeing unprecedented levels of business data volumes that only hyperscale providers can facilitate. Naturally, this has not gone unnoticed and APAC data center revenue is expected to reach US$32 billion by 2023. With so much demand for connectivity, competition amongst operators is only set to become fiercer as firms vie for contracts with the ever-growing list of enterprises operating in APAC and India. As we have seen previously in markets such as Europe and the US, the most successful data center operators will not only be the ones that OPERATORS WHO FAIL TO INCORPORATE SCALABILITY INTO THEIR PRODUCT ROADMAPS RISK FALLING BEHIND AND LOSING ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS TO DATA CENTER PROVIDERS THAT ARE BETTER SUITED TO THEIR NEEDS. www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 55