Speech by IDA CEO at the Grand Opening of NTT Communications' Serangoon Data Centre

27 April 2012 - Speech by Mr Ronnie Tay, CEO, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, at the Grand Opening of NTT Communications' Serangoon Data Centre at Marina Bay Sands

Speech by Mr Ronnie Tay, CEO, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, at the Grand Opening of NTT Communications' Serangoon Data Centre, 27 April 2012, 12:40pm at Marina Bay Sands

His Excellency Yoichi Suzuki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of Singapore

Mr Akira Arima, President and CEO, NTT Communications

Mr Takeshi Kazami, President and CEO, NTT Singapore

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. I am pleased and honoured to join all of you here to officially open the Singapore data centre of NTT Communications (NTT Com).

2. I would like to first congratulate NTT Com on the successful completion of this significant milestone project. I am pleased that NTT Com has chosen to anchor this premium, high-performance facility in Singapore, connecting its customers to key financial hubs across the Asia Pacific region.

3. Over the past year, we have seen continued interest by Japanese ICT companies to internationalize and Singapore is considered one of the more favoured destinations for such companies, both large corporations and new start-ups alike. Singapore has established business relations with many Japanese enterprises which view our international business connections and our attractiveness as a talent hub as being important factors for them to site their regional business operations here.

Singapore: Data Centre Hub for Global Companies

4. With globalization making the world a smaller place, international MNCs are consolidating their IT resources and functions in key regional hubs for better efficiency, cost control and governance. Asia's rapid growth, in the midst of economic uncertainty in the developed economies, has also resulted in these MNCs increasing their IT investments to support their expanding businesses in this region.

5. IDA seeks to attract these companies to hub their strategic IT operations, such as the global CIO function, technology centres of competence as well as data centres, in Singapore. Over the past few years, IDA has facilitated global companies in setting up their IT functions here, creating more than 1,600 high-end IT jobs and generating more than S$950 million in IT investments.

6. The demand for data centre facilities and services is expected to remain strong over the next few years. Singapore is well-positioned to help facilitate more businesses in setting up their Shared IT Services centres here. Singapore is recognised by international agencies such as World Economic Forum, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy and Business Environment Risk Intelligence as one of the most conducive places in the world to do business, with our stable political climate and reputation for efficiency. In the latest Global Information Technology Report, Singapore retained its ranking as the second most networked-ready country in the world.

7. We are also constantly developing our infocomm infrastructure and capabilities to stay relevant. Our ultra-high speed optical fibre Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, capable of speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second and beyond, has achieved coverage of 86% of all homes and non-residential buildings to date, and is on track to achieve its target of 95% in the next couple of months. For businesses, the network is expected to lower domestic connectivity charges for data centres and boost productivity. We also have a highly-qualified workforce and a vibrant eco-system of local and international industry partners that creates significant synergies for the industry and provides fertile ground for collaboration.

8. According to a study conducted by BroadGroup in October 2010, the total commercial data centre space in Singapore is forecast to grow by 52% to reach 336,900sqm by year 2015. To meet the demand for data centres in the region, IDA, EDB, EMA and JTC Corporation have embarked on a project to develop a Data Centre Park (DCP) in Singapore. The DCP, targeted to be ready by mid 2014, aims to attract more MNCs and enterprises to base their premium data centre operations here. Occupying an area of 13 hectares, the DCP can house up to eight DC buildings, providing up to 111,000sqm3 of DC rackable space.

9. We have also put in place initiatives to facilitate more efficient, green data centres. IDA has worked with the Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC) and Spring Singapore to develop a Green Data Centre standard. The SS564 Standard helps organisations establish systems and processes necessary to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities, thereby enhancing their competitiveness. Other IDA's green ICT initiatives include the Green Mark Scheme for Data Centres and Green Data Centre Innovation Challenge which aim to encourage faster adoption of industry best practices and drive innovation. I understand that many of these best practices have been implemented at NTT Com's Serangoon Data Centre.

Developing Cloud Computing and Business Analytics Capabilities

10. Businesses today are also rethinking their IT infrastructure and building their business processes around servers in data centres to drive business growth in a green and sustainable manner. Technological innovations in cloud computing and business analytics (BA) will improve productivity and present new opportunities for businesses. According to Forrester Research, within Asia Pacific, cloud adoption is the strongest in Singapore and Australia. 42 percent of organisations in Singapore are currently leveraging cloud, up from 16% in 2010 and 6% in 2009. I am glad to note that the Serangoon Data Centre is designed to provide a cloud-ready environment to meet the needs of the financial, IT and manufacturing industries.

11. As part of the Infocomm Industry Productivity Roadmap launched in March this year, IDA is helping our infocomm local enterprises to re-engineer their solutions so that they can sell their products directly through the cloud. The journey to productise solutions or put services on the cloud would require investments in product or service re-design and training. We are working with the industry to put in place the necessary resources and programmes to support them in moving towards this direction, and grow their productivity and competitiveness in the global marketplace.

12. IDA is also working with the industry to set up innovation centres to pilot emerging BA technologies and catalyse development of BA products and services. One such collaboration is that with Citi Global Transaction Services (GTS) through its Citi Innovation Lab, which leverages new web, mobile, supply chain and analytics technologies to create innovative products and solutions for its clients.

13. IDA will continue to facilitate and support global companies which choose to anchor their business critical IT services and capabilities here. We recognise these companies' contribution to Singapore – not only in terms of strong economic spin-offs, but also their leadership in new and emerging technologies. We look forward to NTT Com expanding its operations in Singapore, including through collaborating with our infocomm local enterprises in developing next generation ICT solutions.

Conclusion

14. In closing, I would like to once again extend my congratulations to NTT Communications on the inauguration of the Serangoon Data Centre.

15. Thank you.