A recent article posted in Kompas looks at the continued growth of data centres in Indonesia, which reached a capacity of 200-megawatts by the end of 2022. This is expected to increase to 300-megawatts in 2023 and is tied to increasing internet user penetration.
Hendra Suryakusuma, General Chairperson of the Indonesian Data Centre Association (IDPRO) said that in 2016 when IDPRO was established there were only six members managing data centre companies with an installed capacity of 32-megawatts (MW) and in 2022, the number of IDPRO members increased to 14 companies. “Several members of the association have stated that they are ready to build a new data centre facility, which we estimate will have a capacity of up to 300 MW,” said Hendra.
According to Kompas, a 2019 Cushman & Wakefield property consultant research report stated that the capacity of data centres in Indonesia has the potential to increase to more than 1 gigawatt in nine years, with the increase in internet user penetration every year being the main trigger for the potential for new development. Other triggers are the games business, cloud computing, and content.
Hendra said that the potential for additional capacity to be more than 1 gigawatt would target hyper scale data centre facilities as well as data centres that are located near networks or users so as to enable faster interconnection (edge data center.)
Djarot Subiantoro, Head of the National Application Division of the Indonesian Telematics Society (Mastel) added that if measured per capita, the availability of data centres in Indonesia is still around 0.6 watts per capita; while Japan is 6 watts per capita and Singapore is 60 watts per capita. This means that there is still a lot of room for growth for data centre facility managers although it also depends on the development of human resources, telecommunications network infrastructure, power supply, and government policies.
“Jakarta and its surroundings are still a data centre magnet for the domestic market, while Batam is for the international market,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Director of PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk Ririek Adriansyah said, in December 2022, that Telkom through NeutraDC will start laying the groundwork for the second hyper scale data center (HDC) facility in Batam. This facility has a total capacity of 75 MW and an information technology load capacity of 51 MW. Telkom is also developing a data centre in Cikarang. These two facilities will be connected to smaller-scale data centres spread across smaller cities, say Kompas.
DCI Indonesia has begun to inaugurate the JK5 data centre building to complement the three previously operating data centre buildings to improve services for customers in Indonesia and to build the most complete local data centre ecosystem in Indonesia that will support the growth of the digital economy.
According to Ririek, the data centre business can generate multiple profits of more than 20 times. Other subsidiaries that once focused on the data centre business will be consolidated. “We are targeting Batam because it is reported that Singapore is no longer able to receive additional data centre facilities. In fact, demand from Singapore is still high. In Batam, there is no telecommunications network connectivity problem,” he said.
Managing Director of EdgeConneX for Asia Pacific Kelvin Fong added that last year, EdgeConneX acquired a data centre owned by PT Graha Teknologi Nusantara. EdgeConneX also owns a plot of land directly adjacent to the facility. According to the plan, EdgeConneX will build a data centre facility with a capacity of more than 90 MW.
On the same day, PT Astra International Tbk (Astra) and Equinix announced the formation of a joint venture to develop digital infrastructure in Indonesia. One of them is a data centre facility. President Director of Astra, Djony Bunarto, said that this joint venture is expected to strengthen data centre infrastructure that helps business people
Source: Kompas
