Indonesia’s data center market has been growing exponentially over the last few years. Most major cloud providers including AWS, Google, Microsoft and Alibaba have already set up their data centers and cloud regions in the country while others have also announced plans to increase their capacity and presence in the fourth most populated country in the world.
According to Mordor Intelligence, the Indonesian data center market is worth US$ 1.67 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach US$ 3.43 billion by 2027. In fact, the country has over 65 operational colocation data centers with key investors being DCI Indonesia, DTP, Keppel Data Centre, Telekom Indonesia and Biznet Data Centre.
Now, Singaporean telco giant Singtel has entered into a strategic partnership with Indonesia’s largest telco Telkom, and Indonesian energy company Medco Power for its first data center project in Indonesia. This is the third market for Singtel as it advances its regional data center strategy to address digital infrastructure demand critical to ASEAN’s growth. The partnership comes on the back of a memorandum of understanding between Singtel and long-standing partner Telkom in April to collaborate in the area of data centers.
Singtel, Telkom and Medco Power held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new hyperscale data center located in Kabil Industrial Estate along Batam’s eastern seaboard. The data center campus will be developed in three phases on an 8-hectare site and have a total capacity of 51 MW when fully completed with the initial phase of the project delivering approximately 20 MW.
The new data center will be built to the latest standards for reliability, security and sustainability with dual-source power including clean, renewable energy from Medco Power and the best connectivity through Telkom and Singtel to serve hyperscalers, multinationals and local businesses in Indonesia and Singapore. The data center will be majority owned by Telkom while Singtel and Medco Power will be minority sharehold
According to Andrew Lim, Chief Commercial Officer of Singtel’s Regional Data Centre business, the strategic partnership with Telkom and Medco Power in Batam marks Singtel’s first foray into the data center market in Indonesia.
“As Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy, Indonesia is core to our expansion plans into high-growth markets. Our track record in designing, building, and operating data centers, combined with Telkom and Medco Power’s deep expertise in their respective fields will prove a powerful partnership,” commented Lim.
Lim also pointed out that Batam is expected to experience increasing investment spill-overs as a result of land and power constraints in neighboring markets thanks to its location, ample land capacity and rich connectivity to Singapore, Indonesia and other parts of the world.
“Jointly developing a best-in-class hyperscale data center in Batam will provide regional customers with a strong alternative. In fact, our hyperscale customers are looking to grow their cloud computing infrastructure to serve the APAC region while being located near Singapore. This maiden project will also showcase our differentiated one-stop offering to local and international businesses looking for support to grow their presence in Indonesia,” added Lim.
Besides Indonesia, Singtel is developing a data center with a capacity of 20 MW in Thailand with partners Gulf Energy and AIS. It is also adding capacity in Singapore with a new build in Tuas. Both data centers are expected to begin operations by 2025.
