INTERNET: OUTSOURCING: Net firms rushing to set up data centres: ISPs aim for diversification
Bangkok Post - Thailand; Feb 7, 2001
The Internet Data Centre (IDC) sector is getting crowded in Thailand, with Internet service providers (ISPs) and other local and foreign IT firms leaping into a market where profits remain uncertain.
With its promise of minimising a company's capital investment, an IDC is one of the ways just about every ISP is trying to lure corporate customers.
An IDC offers benefits such as climate control, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and back-up generator to cater to the high traffic and bandwidth requirements of a firm's business and Internet applications. Specific services offered include co-location of equipment, dedicated server hosting and server management. In other words, they provide enterprises with an alternative for the housing, operation and maintenance of Internet servers and applications. It also enables a business to save on its total cost of ownership by utilising the Internet backbone and an IDC.
When putting services in the hands of an IDC, corporate users can still retain full control of daily operations and periodic maintenance and development activities through remote access to the data centre 24 hours a day, according to the firms who provide IDCs.
Other facilities provided in the data centre include Internet access, security systems, secured access, network monitoring, support and maintenance and backup systems.
Loxley Information Services (LoxInfo) is one of the major ISPs that has diversified into the IDC sector by setting up the Point Asia Data Centre subsidiary. The company is utilising its existing office at Suapa, and has 250 square metres of space and an investment of 100 million baht. This will be its primary data centre for the first year, while a second site, at Muang Thong Thani, will also open in the middle of this year.
LoxInfo president Dr Tachpong Hotrabhavananda said facilities such as a console room and back-up generator would be in place this month. The company is now working with its hardware and software partners to offer the service to customers.
LoxInfo will initially focus on large corporates and multinationals. Rival ISP Internet Thailand (Inet), which has the largest base of corporate users in Thailand, is one of the more mature players in the IDC arena. As the country's first ISP, Inet also has some of the most substantial Internet infrastructure.
The company is now planning its second IDC, which will be located some distance from its original centre. "The distance between the data centres will ensure that a system backup is able to function smoothly in case either one of them has a problem, such as an electrical failure or a disaster," said Inet president Trin Tantsetthi, adding that network security and reliability were the most important factors.
Cable & Wireless Services Thailand (CWT), a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), opened its Internet data centre in Thailand in August last year. An investment of 120 million baht, the centre is based on Cisco network technology and Sun Microsystems servers.
The company plans to open its second Bangkok Internet data centre this year, along with three provincial centres in Chiang Mai, Rayong and Phuket.
Akarapong Phongsuwan, country manager for CWT, said the second Bangkok Centre would be a back-up unit, while the provincial centres would focus on multinational firms operating in industrial estates.
Thailand is also the first country in the region in which DataOne Asia, a subsidiary of Singapore's Kepple T&T, has expanded its operations. DataOne Asia (Thailand) was established in May last year. Other operations in the region will cover Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Indonesia by the third quarter of this year. Kepple Communications, another subsidiary of Kepple T&T, took a 20 percent stake in local ISP Anew. As a result, DataOne Thailand will utilise the domestic Internet bandwidth of Anew as well as that of LoxInfo. DataOne Asia (Thailand) IT director, Saravudh Israsena na Ayuthaya, said that the hosting business is growing 80-100 percent each year. The growth is due to the increased demand for outsourcing.
He said that worldwide, some 60 percent of businesses are outsourcing services such as database systems.
DataOne Thailand's services include web hosting, dedicated server hosting, server management, co-location and corporate email outsourcing.
Newcomer Jasmine Internet (Ji-Net) has already diversified its ISP business and sees web hosting and data centres as a new avenue to supplement revenue in the long term.
According to Ji-Net president Somsak Pattana-anek, around 80 percent of total revenue currently stems from the company's ISP operations. However, ISP operations are expected to fall to 60-70 percent of revenue, with 15 to 20 percent coming from the data centre and the remainder from the web business, he said.
The company has invested around 10 million baht in preparation for clients to shift information to its data centre. 150 square metres is planned for the first phase of facilities, which will support around 200 customers. Space will double this year to 300 square metres.
NTT Communication (NTT Com) together with Shin Corp is yet another group, which will combine efforts to promote a data centre and e-commerce content services in Thailand. As part of the agreement, NTT Com will invest 500 million baht in AD Venture, Shin Corps' IT venture fund. The company aims to capture the Japanese business community in Thailand and expand its business here.
While the IDC services from every company attempt to convince corporate customers that they can benefit from secured and scalable resources while mimimising ongoing IT infrastructure investments, it takes time for those customers to gain the confidence that their information will be in good hands.
Billions of baht has been invested to date by companies committed to the IDC business, but no one has yet dared estimate how much revenue will be generated by such services.
Sasiwimon Boonruang
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