NTT Data Center

NTT is investing USD 90 million into a new tier 3- 12MW facility – its largest data center in the country. (Source – NTT)

NTT to construct US$90 million data center in Bangkok

The Thailand data center market continues to see investments pouring in with NTT announcing an investment of US$90 million to develop its newest and largest data center in the country. Through NTT Global Data Centers Corporation, the new Bangkok 3 Data Center (BKK3) will start operations in the second half of 2024 and will provide a maximum IT capacity of 12MW across approximately 4,000 m² of IT space when fully built out.

The data center market in Thailand was valued at US$764 million in 2022 and is expected to reach US$1.33 billion by 2028. According to a report by Arizton, the entry of new players such as OneAsia Network, Telehouse, Nautilus Data Technologies, Edge Centres, and Chindata Group and the development of cloud regions by major operators such as Amazon Web Services and Google is likely to attract more global players to invest in the Thailand data center market during the forecast period.

NTT’s new data center will be located 57km from Bangkok Central at the Eastern Economic Corridor’s Amata City Chonburi industrial estate. The new infrastructure will cater to hyperscalers and enterprises, providing them with flexible and scalable IT infrastructure, optimum power efficiency and cost-effectiveness to support high densities of up to 30kW per rack.

According to Takeshi Kimura, Managing Director for NTT Global Data Centers Holding Asia Pte. Ltd, the economic activity based on the digital infrastructure available in South Asia is changing rapidly. Hence there is a need for high-quality digital infrastructure to support the accelerating digital needs of enterprises.

“Following the Jakarta 3 Data Center (JKT3) in Indonesia, completed in April 2022, and the Cyberjaya 6 Data Center (CBJ6) in Malaysia, scheduled for completion around the middle of 2023, we are pleased to announce plans to offer BKK3 services around the second half of 2024 on a site adjacent to Bangkok 2 Data Center (BKK2). We plan to expand further in this area to create a critical infrastructure platform that supports the growth of Thailand’s digital economy, including the surge in electronic transactions and data consumption,” commented Kimura.

Echoing Kumira is Sutas Kongdumrongkiat, CEO for NTT Ltd. in Thailand. Kongdumrongkiat pointed out that Asia Pacific is a key growth region for NTT, and, as Thailand makes progress with digital transformation, the need for infrastructure to handle high-volume real-time data transmission becomes increasingly important.

For Suthipat Lueprasert, CEO for NTT Global Data Centers (Thailand) Limited, the demand for data storage and managed hosting services is expected to grow dramatically across Thailand. Lueprasert also said that BKK3 will accommodate the needs of clients, particularly cloud service providers and the financial industry, which require flexible facility designs to help them achieve their business objectives.

“In tandem with the existing BKK2, we are continuing smart operations, scheduling and technology to improve power usage efficiency to be as low as 1.4. We continue to adopt green energy into our data centers and keep sustainability in our core planning. NTT Ltd. will continue to play a key role in providing high-speed data capacity to support Thailand’s digital ecosystems,” added Lueprasert.

The new data center is being constructed in line with NTT Group’s vision of Green Innovation toward 2040. The framework will help NTT towards achieving net zero emissions across its operations by 2030 and its value chain by 2040 – in lockstep with Thailand’s own commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.