The news was announced by Joe Kava, vice president of data centers at Googe, in a blog post on the company’s website. In the post Kava said: “In the three years since our last update, more than 70 million people in Southeast Asia have gotten online for the first time, bringing the region's total to more than 330 million–that’s more than the population of the United States.”
In addition Kava says that an increasing number of businesses in the country are going online too so demand for its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is also growing. Since going live with the offering in 2017 the likes of Singapore Airlines, Ninjavan and Wego have joined the likes of GO-JEK and Carousell, using GCP to serve their customers. As result the company is starting work on a third facility.
Google opened its first data centre in Singapore back in 2011, opening the doors to its second facility in 2015. The first one located in Jurong West sits on 2.45 hectares of land and has been described by the company as “one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Asia”. Its cooling system uses recycled water, with each element of the facility custom designed to operate at optimal efficiency.
The second facility sits on a plot of land roughly the same size and right next to the first, with much of the same operating principles.
Though no completion date or cost of construction has been given, one complete this laest expansion will bring Google’s long-term investment in Singapore data centres to a total of $850 million.
As for the newly announced third data centre, this will also be located in Jurong West, down the road from the existing two sites. The multi-storey facility will stay in keeping with Google’s other efficient and environmentally friendly buildings. It will feature the latest machine learning technology to reduce energy use, as well as recycled water diverting 100% of the site’s waste away from the landfill.
Kava says that Google is hoping to grow its small team at the data centres in Singapore and encourages nonprofits with good ideas that benefit the local community to come forward for their annual grants program.
