Google invests US$350m more in Singapore data centre operations, unveils plans for 3rd facility !

SINGAPORE: Internet giant Google announced on Wednesday (Aug 1) it will be building a third data centre in Singapore as more consumers and businesses are coming online, and more of these are demanding cloud services.

The company said in a blog post that it is starting work on the third facility located in Jurong West “just down the road" from its first two buildings, and it would bring its long-term investment in local data centres to US$850 million. Previously, it said investments amounted to US$500 million when the second data centre was announced in 2015.
It built its first Southeast Asia data centre here back in 2011, and added another four years later, due to the rapid growth in users and usage seen in the region, it said.

“The pace hasn’t slowed. In the three years since our last update, more than 70 million people in Southeast Asia started getting online for the first time, bringing the region's total to more than 330 million – that’s more than the whole population of the United States,” Mr Joe Kava, vice president of Global Data Centres at Google wrote.

“More businesses are getting online too, which has meant quickly growing demand for our expanding Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offerings,” Mr Kava added, pointing to customers like Singapore Airlines, Wego, Go-Jek and Carousell.

Channel NewsAsia understands Google is not building a new data centre from scratch, but repurposing an existing building for its needs. It also plans to get it up and running in 2020.

The multi-storey facility will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly sites in Asia in line with its global approach, Google touted. For one, it will use the latest machine-learning technology to reduce energy usage, it added.

The company did not reveal how many new jobs will be created as a result of the latest data centre, but said it is “looking forward to growing our small team here”. A check on its job portal showed openings for data centre technician, programme manager for data centre design and site director for hardware operations.