ONCE in full operation NARRA1, a 10-megawatt (MW) data center located just outside Metro Manila, will be the largest, telco-agnostic facility of its kind in the Philippines.
Recently inaugurated and presented to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy, NARRA1 is not only large in scale, but is larger in ambition.
“We’re pleased to finally open our doors in Manila and further expand our presence across the region. Our management team is deeply committed to bridging the digital divide across Asia,” Jonathan Chou, Chief Product Officer for Digital Edge said as he explained how the gap between the availability of data centers and the demand for them worldwide is significant.
Designed to be an extremely energy-efficient facility NARRA 1, is a joint project of Singaporean tech company Digital Edge and the Threadborne Group, operated by the Rufino family corporation which is focused on technology and real estate.
Serving local first
NARRA 1 was designed to plug the huge unmet demand for data center capacity in the country, with the domestic colocation market expected to grow at a CAGR of 25 percent between 2022 and 2027.
Investment specialist Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) estimated in a study that there is about 96MW requirement for data centers in the Philippines as of 2022. Coupled with the DICT’s Cloud first policy, first announced two years ago, that number can grow exponentially because of the country’s high appetite for the internet, social media and e-commerce.
“Local companies of various sizes will benefit from the capabilities and compliances of NARRA1. That’s why NARRA1 has been designed and built to the highest specifications using cutting-edge technology, as we seek to provide the Philippines with the state-of-the-art digital infrastructure it deserves” Chou said as he welcomed members of the IT media to the facility located in Laguna Technopark, Biñan, Laguna.
Ready for hyperscalers
Due to its massive size, offering 2,200 cabinets in a stable, dust-free environment, NARRA1 is ready for hyperscalers. Hyperscalers, like Amazon Web Services, Alibaba Cloud, Google Cloud, Huawei, Meta, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle, are large cloud service users or providers, whose appetite for data space, storage, and management needs constant and elastic capacity for them to provide services such as edge computing and storage at enterprise scale.
Hyperscalers’ huge requirements for data storage do not end with server racks and storage disks, but also with power management, facility resilience, and built-in compliance to global or corporate ESG goals.
To put the power of NARRA1 in perspective, the global hyperscale self-build capacity is at an average of 13,177MW. This is according to a study by Structure Research, which points out that geographically it is in North America where there is the largest self-build capacity. However, drilling into the data, the four largest cloud providers–AWS, Google Cloud, Meta, and Microsoft Azure–use 78 percent of that capacity and are still on the prowl for more data centers in locations closest to their markets are found.
This is followed by the Asia-Pacific region–wherein China accounts for 24 percent of capacity. But it is in Southeast Asia where the expansion is fastest–expanding by 16.5 percent in the next five to seven years compared with 11.6 percent for the rest of the world. Southeast Asia’s data center colocation market, was valued at an estimated $2.2B in 2019.
“We see significant growth potential in the Philippines and are the first regional data center player to open for business in the market. We want to be the shining gold standard for the industry when it comes to green, sustainable data centers, and we hope NARRA1 will set the example for the Philippines and beyond,” Vic Barrios, Country Manager for Digital Edge in the Philippines commented.
More than just energy efficient
The data center has been designed to meet the latest demands from cloud, network, digital media, and enterprise customers in terms of power specifications, reliability, security and sustainability. Digital Edge has confirmed it has already received bookings for the new data center including from multiple major domestic internet service providers.
During the tour of the facility, revealed its resilience and redundant systems. Fireproofing, waterproofing, wind-deflective architecture with a roof that can stand 300-kph hurricanes, much higher than what Yolanda could dish out.
Built from a re-purposed warehouse, the data center’s interiors are built on all-steel girders. The whole roof and framing were replaced. The roofing taken out of the facility was inspected and donated to select communities in the country, part of the group’s own Corporate Social Responsibility activities. With the framing and roof upgraded, water proofing was the next step, while the walls were resin-coated to stabilize temperatures.
To keep the temperatures cool enough for the massive heat-generating server banks to enjoy, external cooling towers are used. And for continuous power, in both intermittent and even the most drastic situations, apart from uninterruptible power supply sources inside the server cabinets, a network of power generators stationed behind the facility of 35MW each is capable of running the data center during an extended power outage of up to 3 days.
“Each of these gensets can power a small town,” Glenn Flores, Digital Edge Operations Director jested. “The genset redundancy is set to N+1. It could last for 3 days depending on the load.”
For the environment
In line with the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, the data center will leverage Nortek’s patented StatePoint Liquid Cooling (SPLC) technology. Validated by research, the SPLC system is best suited for the micro-climate that is typical of Biñan and Sta Rosa. It uses cold water instead of cool air to maintain the best operating temperature for data center servers.
The system operates in one of three modes to optimize water and power consumption, depending on outside temperature and humidity levels. SPLC along with innovative engineering design, enables the facility to achieve an expected annualized Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.193 and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of 1.355 at optimal operating temperature.
The facility will also be triple certified with LEED Gold, BERDE, and EDGE certifications–a first in the Philippines, and globally.
“Our companies share a common commitment to robust ESG goals and we are excited by the innovative design of this facility, which will enable us to support the growth of the digital economy without compromising on our environmental responsibilities,” Raymond Rufino, Principal for Investments and Real Estate of the Threadborne Group said.
Contributing to the digitalization of the Philippines
Citing government policies and the direction of the Executive branch towards digitalization, Digital Edge’s executives agree that they are in the right place at the right time with the opening of NARRA1.
“Digital transformation is a priority for the Philippines and we are proud to work with Digital Edge to further enhance the country’s critical digital infrastructure with the availability of NARRA1,” Rufino explained.
NARRA 1 is Digital Edge’s debut in the Philippines but its experience crisscrosses the Asia Pacific region with projects in China, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The company continues its mission to bridge the digital divide in South East Asia’s high-growth markets.
