CtrlS, NT partner for Thailand hyperscale datacenter campus

CtrlS Datacenters Ltd, Asia's largest Rated-4 Datacenter (DC) operator, is collaborating with National Telecom Public Company (NT), a telecom provider who has the most extensive international communication networks and the most submarine cables landing in Thailand, for its upcoming 150-MW datacenter campus at the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) in Chonburi, Thailand.

The greenfield datacenter campus in Thailand marks CtrlS’ first international market expansion as well as its first hyperscale datacenter campus in Thailand.

The digitalization across Thailand, deployment of 5G, and improved connectivity with highly efficient submarine cables with countries such as USA, China, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan makes the country an attractive hub for digital infrastructure. Additionally, the datacenter development in the Eastern Corridor will attract both international and domestic hyperscale and enterprise customers, including customers from heavy industries (Automotive, Manufacturing & Petrochemicals), food processing and other key industries.

CtrlS is building a hyperscale datacenter campus with design capacity up to 150 MW in Chonburi, Thailand, and NT will be one of the partners for Network/Connectivity. CtrlS and NT are entering into a collaboration of convergence of data center colocation services, cable landing station (CLS), network connectivity hub and various cloud based services, known as Convergence of DCT (Data Center, CLS & Terrestrial).

CtrlS’ datacenter site at EEC offers proximity to submarine cable landing stations for existing AAG (Asia-America Gateway) cable system and upcoming ADC (Asia Direct Cable) cable system, to be launched in the first quarter of next year, making this datacenter a nodal point of interconnection equipped with submarine and terrestrial cable networks to connect to other data centers & industrial estates. It is also close to the EEC startup incubator and is away from flood prone regions (with Mean Sea Level >40m).

Speaking on the MoU, Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Chairman, CtrlS Datacenters, said, “Through this collaboration, we aim to serve customers’ needs for digital services, both domestic and international. The datacenter is designed to serve hyperscaler needs in addition to serving high-end IT/compute needs of domestic enterprises. We see this datacenter as a unique opportunity to contribute towards development of Thailand’s eastern region and offer a robust diverse option for international customers and partners for establishing their footprint in the country and region.”

Ashish Ahuja, CTO, CtrlS Datacenters, added, “We are delighted to have this strategic collaboration with NT extending their AAG, ADC and future submarine cable landing stations into this datacenter and jointly develop a new Teleport and Point of Interconnection in the facility enabling our datacenter customers to have seamless connectivity within the country and to other markets in the region. This collaboration will help develop Chonburi as new international hub for regional & global content/cloud players to interconnect, providing additional diversity to serve the region in a much efficient manner.”

National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT), a provider of data communication networks both domestically and internationally, has developed telecommunication infrastructure services in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). In collaboration with domestic and international telecom operators, NT is committed to building digital capabilities as well as investing and expanding Thailand’s communications to the world.

Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana, President and CEO of NT, said “NT is very pleased to cooperate with CtrlS in building this datacenter campus, which is the first hyperscale datacenter campus in the eastern region of Thailand. This MoU marks the commitment to upgrade the telecommunications network and support the use of digital technology for the industrial sector in the Eastern Economic Corridor (ECC) through both parties’ strengths in resource, expertise, and infrastructure.”

“This will in turn push Thailand to become an attractive economic center for investors in various industrial sectors and support digital investors in Thailand and from abroad to invest in businesses related to various technologies such as 5G, AI, Cloud, IoTs, Smart City, and Big Data, as well as being a business destination for global content operators.”, he added.

Seikson Mitkasem, Senior EVP (Marketing and Products) of NT, said “For this collaboration, NT is ready to support telecommunication infrastructure, especially the information communication network that covers both domestically and internationally. Currently, NT’s communication network not only features more than 10 connection points to neighboring countries but also has a worldwide coverage. There are six submarine cable stations ready to connect via nine submarine cable systems, including AAE1, AAG, APG, FLAG, SJC, SMW-3, SMW-4, TIS, and ADC as well as PoPs (Point of Presence) in all regions of the world that serve as a connection point to transmit data.”

In July this year, CtrlS has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with EECO (Eastern Economic Corridor Office) to lease a land parcel located at Chonburi Province for setting up the hyperscale datacenter campus.