Data center security: A Southeast Asia perspective

Across Southeast Asia, data centers are mushrooming due to various growth drivers and incentives. This of course is good news for physical security, which is much needed in data centers. This article takes a closer look.
 
Data centers are a global phenomenon. Yet this is especially the case across Southeast Asia, where data centers are experiencing impressive growth.
 
“APAC data centers continue to have robust growth accelerated due to the pandemic over the last few years. Key markets like Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India continue to attract investments from the data centers’ players. While certain countries will grow more than others, growth in the data center’s vertical is expected to grow at approximately a CAGR of 12 percent across APAC. Emerging markets like Southeast and South Asia would grow slightly faster than mature markets like Japan and Oceania,” said Anand Chandrashekara, Business Relationship Manager for End Customer, APAC, at Axis Communications.
 
Drivers are manifold. Cloud adoption and national digitization efforts are some of them. Thailand, for example, aims at becoming the digital hub of Southeast Asia within 10 years and has launched the “Thailand 4.0” economic model, which “concentrates on digital improvements that enhance the quality of life and at the same time promotes productivity and efficiency,” according to the website of the Thailand Board of Investment.
 
“The data center is the growing market in Southeast Asia’s security market. New project inquiries come up like every quarter or at much shorter intervals. I think the background is multiple factors. Digital economy is growing as same as other regions of the world. Increasing the number of Internet users as well as rapid acceptance to the digitalization in Southeast Asian countries resulted in online transactions increase, and the demand for new data centers infrastructure is occurring. Also, each country gives preferential treatment to the data center operators to attract news data center establishments according to their national policy to promote ICT industry,” said Ken Arimura, MD of OPTEX (Thailand).
 
“Most part of Southeast Asia is experiencing some level of data center growth. We still are in implementation stage for few large DC projects in Indonesia and Philippines, and we are seeing more opportunities surfacing in Malaysia and Vietnam,” said Patrick Lim, Director of Group Strategy at Ademco Security Group. “Major drivers are continued digitization and decentralization. Cloud infrastructure in every form is a norm now for private enterprises and governments. Privacy laws are also driving key players to set up digital infrastructure in each country.”
 

Singapore as an example

 
Among the Southeast Asian countries with a robust data center development is Singapore.
 
“Singapore ended its three-year moratorium on new data centers last year, with the authorities announcing a program for applications to build new facilities. The goal is to regulate and manage the growth of data centers in a sustainable manner consistent with Singapore’s climate change commitments. This has led to a resurgence in the industry, and we see that it is getting back on its previous growth trajectory,” said Martin Hogberg, Senior Solutions Architect at Siemens.
 
“In addition, many of the data center operators headquartered in Singapore have also established data centers in neighboring areas such as Johor and Batam,” Hogberg added. These centers play a pivotal role in catering to the dynamic requirements of Singapore's burgeoning digital landscape. This regional expansion underscores the importance of interconnectedness in meeting the evolving demands of data-driven enterprises.”
 
Adrian Tan, Regional Lead for Singapore Business Unit at SALTO, agreed, adding that this has offered good opportunities for security players.
 
“The data center market in Singapore is growing at a steady pace. There are several key drivers including national 5G infrastructure roll-out that includes increased edge compute infrastructure, continuation of national strategy to digitalize across industries with the recent focus in advanced manufacturing, location of Singapore as an international Internet peering point, and continuation of Singapore as a regional business hub across various sectors, that is, logistics and finance, among others,” he said.
 
He added: “While we’re unable to disclose details but from our portfolio of solutions, we do have the solution for providing an integrated solution between access control of doors / choke points + server rack access. Our wide range of integration with technology partners also allow for main access control solution to be by a technology partner and we in turn provide server rack access solution.”

India

While India is a South Asia country, its example is also worth looking at. The country has developed a robust data center industry, presenting good opportunities for security players.
 
“In line with trends across Asia Pacific and globally, the data center market in India has grown rapidly in recent years, predominantly driven by market demands (including cloud adoption, extensive data storage needs, and digital transformation) and government incentives. The government has ensured excellent fiber connectivity in major data center hub cities, such as Chennai, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. This, alongside power supply stability, availability of land, and tax benefits, has attracted investment from global and domestic data center players alike,” said Jijesh K, Operations Manager for South India at Convergint.
 
“Convergint’s technical capabilities, in-depth understanding of this vertical, and reputation in the market has enabled us to deliver many data center projects in India and across APAC, including providing consulting services, system design, project implementation, and maintenance services. We have seen significant growth in this vertical in recent years and foresee continued growth going forward,” Jijesh added.