London and Singapore, 11 February 2009 A new report from consulting firm BroadGroup, covering the five South East Asian economies of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam forecasts an increase in capacity of 68% by 2013 (www.datacentres.com)

The report assesses issues impacting growth, market drivers, power, espousal of green, data centre investments, player strategies and presents data covering floor space across each country. Factors too such as the impact of consolidation in the hosting sector, IT Outsourcing by enterprises, the emerging development of Cloud Computing services, selective investment by property interests collectively represent the rigours of market survival and competitiveness that will likely be endured across the region, as well as potential opportunities that can be harnessed by those with the resources and competencies to do so.

Singapore remains the nexus of data centre activity in the South East Asian region, and represents some 48% of all facilities included in this report, and has been a destination of choice for locating IT hubs by multinational firms. The report suggests these advantages will be sustained particularly with the possible new development of data centre parks, specific locations for data centres with shared power and physical infrastructure.

Although Singapore has a 40% lead in terms of Space, Malaysia is moving more quickly to play catch up and it is evident that larger scale facilities are clustering in Kuala Lumpur. Six of the top ten Data Centre players in South East Asia by Space are based in Malaysia. Australia/New Zealand will represent tougher competition in terms of pricing over the next two years for Singapore. India too (with the new India-UK Cable) may pose more of a medium term threat.

Although new projects and investment will be hindered by the global downturn, many of the data centres included in the report nevertheless appear to be positioned to weather difficult trading conditions over the next twenty four months and emerge as important players in the next wave of digital growth, commented Philip Low, managing director of BroadGroup.

While there is significant interest in data centres industry, support infrastructure for the industry is still under development. Cable landing points, domestic connectivity and market maturity are required for sustained growth. The government recognizes the need for infrastructure and has been pro-active to invest and develop it.

The report notes significant interest in data centres in Vietnam, although points to the support infrastructure including cable landing points and domestic connectivity are still under development but which has already attracted government investment.

Further information on the report can be found here.<%2