Malaysia has been in focus when it comes to data centre investments, with areas like Johor Bahru, Cyberjaya and Kulim being the busiest. Earlier in June, an international news portal reported that Malaysia is emerging as a data centre powerhouse in Southeast Asia and the continent more broadly as demand surges for cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Over the past few years, the country has attracted billions of dollars in data centre investments, including from tech giants like Google, Nvidia and Microsoft.
According to DC Byte Managing Director of APAC James Murphy, Johor alone might overtake Singapore by becoming the largest market in Southeast Asia within a couple of years.
In light of this, the Malaysian government plans to announce guidelines for data centre power usage effectiveness (PUE) and water usage effectiveness (WUE) by the third quarter of the year to boost investments.
On this, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said the guidelines would ensure data centres built in Malaysia meet the minimum sustainability requirements to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
“As data centres consume a lot of power and water, we want to ensure that the data centres built here (in Malaysia) meet the minimum requirements set by global institutions.
“SIRIM and the Department of Standards Malaysia are in the midst of finalising (the guidelines), and we will announce them by the third quarter of this year,” he said after the groundbreaking ceremony for Vantage Data Centres’ second campus (KUL2) in August.
Tengku Zafrul said the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) will work closely with the Digital Ministry and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to incorporate the improvements into the data centre ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said the two main challenges for data centre investments are power and water, hence the guidelines being developed will ensure that the country has a sufficient and sustainable supply of both resources for the next five to ten years to attract more investments.
Gobind also said the Digital Ministry and MITI are working together to address concerns about sufficient water and electricity supply due to significant demand from industry players.
“We need to push ahead to ensure we can develop Malaysia as the hub for data centres in this region, particularly as we move towards the country’s ASEAN 2025 chairmanship.
“We want to project Malaysia as a country with clear policies that are attractive not just to data centres but all investments in that ecosystem as well,” he said.
Vantage’s KUL2 is located adjacent to its existing campus in Cyberjaya. It will have 10 facilities across 256,000 square metres.
The US$3 billion KUL2 data centre campus will deliver 256MW of information technology (IT) capacity to meet the growing demand for hyperscale data centre services.
Cyberjaya Increases Attractiveness for Hyperscale Data Centres
Cyberjaya, as the preferred tech (technology) investment location, remains attractive to hyperscale data centres, with a few more operators coming on board soon, said Cyberview Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer, Kamarul Ariffin Abdul Samad.
He said that to date, the city is home to 15 data centres, which consist of commercial and captive data centres, including hyperscalers, among the operators of which are Equinix, Bridge Data Centre, EdgeConnex, Microsoft and NTT.
“We still have good enquiries from more data centres and it shows that Cyberjaya is the preferred location for data centre operators. I cannot reveal it now because it is still being negotiated. We will make the announcement at the right time,” he said.
Kamarul Ariffin said that with growing interconnectedness, automation, and massive data processing, data centres, which are the very backbone of the digital economy, first and foremost contribute directly to enhancing the overall digital infrastructure.
He said in ensuring that investors are well-supported, Cyberview puts in place the required elements which include enhancing and optimising its infrastructure.
“Some data centres that are going to open in Cyberjaya are already artificial intelligence (AI)-ready. Some of the centres being constructed here are building Al data centres so it can convert from hyperscale to Al when the need arises,” he said.
