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17 October, 2014

Singapore prioritising sustainability, cost reduction and space efficiency in data centres in 2014

DCD Intelligence (DCDi), the business intelligence division of DatacenterDynamics (DCD), has revealed that the key investment drivers for Singapore data centres have changed significantly in the 2014-2015 timeframe compared to the same period a year before.

According to DCDi, the Singapore market wants much more out of data centre performance now, with more respondents in the Data Center Asia Pacific Census 2014* focusing on a greater range of key performance areas in 2014 than they did in 2013. In particular, Singapore respondents have made sustainability, more effective use of space and reduced operating costs their top three priorities.

DCDi said that total data centre space would grow 2.74% to 740,000 sq m between 2014 and 2015, down from a 6.57% increase in space for the same period a year ago. Despite the slowdown in space requirements, DCDi analysts say that there will be 10% more racks in 2015. This contrasts with an 8.11% increase in racks from 2013 to 2014, suggesting that data centres may be more densely packed in future. Growth in power requirements have also slowed to 1.15 million kW in the 2014-2015 period against 1.1 million kW in 2013-2014, a testament to more power-efficient servers being installed in Singapore data centres today.

Energy costs are a major concern in Singapore, with 86% of data centres being monitored continuously on their energy consumption (68% globally), and 76% on energy efficiency (46% globally). More than half (57%) are also monitored continuously for server utilisation, a measure of efficiency, against a global continuous monitoring figure of 45%.

"This is a market where data centres account for 1% of the total land area and 7% of electricity consumption. It needs to make every square metre and kW count. Therefore the game is changing from asset growth to adding value and the deployment of new technologies and architectures gives Singapore operators a chance to stay ahead. But with these technologies the window of opportunity is short and this creates the flux of new drivers on the charts," said Dedric Lam, CEO, Asia Pacific, DatacenterDynamics.

Jason Lim, Group Director for Technology Business, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said, "Increased usage of new platforms and applications such as mobile applications, social media and cloud computing will drive the demand for data centres. Singapore has accumulated a vast track record and expertise in the IT sector and in the implementation of data centres to serve this new demand. Our companies are well-equipped to provide related services – from development to managed services and critical infrastructure – to this industry. IE Singapore will work with these companies to actively pursue such opportunities on the global front."

Interest in key investment drivers for data centres in Singapore 2013/2014
Key Investment Driver
% of respondents
2013-2014
% of respondents
2014-2015
Difference
To be 'greener' & more sustainable
22
46
24
To improve space use
24
44
20
To reduce operating costs
31
49
18
To improve network performance
21
37
16
To meet legislation or accreditation
13
29
16
To support the requirements of big data
10
26
16
Increase power to facility
27
42
15
To increase redundancy
28
42
14
To enable virtualization/cloud computing
23
37
14
To improve security
25
38
13
To access SD utilities and
6
19
13
"AAS" models
Changing corporate & client requirements
18
29
11
 Source: DCD Intelligence 

"Singapore has one of the highest levels of concern about energy costs while capacity does not appear to be rising that sharply. The Singapore market has very high expectations about the performance and excellence of its data centers. With a myriad of new issues like big data, legislation and sustainability coming to the fore, data centre managers have a busy year ahead," concluded Lam.

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