Data centers: A shining star in the property sector

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes

Monica Gonzalez, Santos Knight Frank Director and Data Centers Lead, Occupier Solutions and Services, pointed out that Covid-19 accelerated the dependence on data centers. With the demand for more video calls and hybrid work happening around the world, the demand for technology was quite obvious. The demand for co-location, internet, and cloud services required the need for sophisticated facilities based in-country. There is no turning back, according to Gonzalez, as the global data center market is estimated to grow at an average of more than 13 percent every year to $143.4 billion by 2027, according to Research and Markets. By 2023, Asia Pacific is predicted to account for 30 percent of global center revenues. “Excitingly, the Philippines is near the epicenter of this wave of developments happening across the region.”

Gonzalez said the Philippines has been on the radar for data center operators primarily for the local population’s high digital consumption. The heavy use of the internet and social media by the Filipinos rose by 6.1 percent and 22 percent respectively between 2020 and 2021, according to Hootsuite.

Furthermore, government support, infrastructure investment, growing renewable energy sector, and availability of engineering and IT talent have made investors take a closer look at the Philippines. “Lastly, the country offers an important factor that some established hubs cannot: available raw land. Indeed, this has been the primary constraint of data center sector expansion in areas such as Singapore,” Gonzalez said.

In fact, YCO Cloud Centers recently announced the construction of a 12-MW Data Center in Malvar, Batangas. The initial phase involves the construction of a 10,000-sq-m 2-story Data Center, including the first of four 3-MW data halls.

“The data center market is an exciting space for the Philippines.

As the data center sector continues to grow alongside the increasing demand for data, we expect to see an upswing in activity for data center investments into the country,” Gonzalez said.

Going to the cloud

A BIG n umber of entrepreneurs are aware of the importance of digitalization. A majority (85 percent) of Philippine businesses plan a full-scale cloud migration in two years, while more than nine in 10 (91 percent ) of them will increase their investment in cloud in 2023, according to a survey entitled “The Next-Generation Cloud Strategy in Asia.”

The survey was commissioned by Alibaba Cloud, the digital technol -