Cloud & Datacenters Magazine vol. #8 | Cooling Innovations

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Cooling Innovations

Why all roads lead to liquid cooling

Liquid cooling adoption in South Asia

Can floating data centers solve the heat crisis?

Singapore’s plan to become a premier networking hub

Special Interconnect World Supplement

W.Media is a Technology Publisher & Community Hub.

We serve the cloud/IT, data centers and network infrastructure professionals through media solutions and business events.

4 From the Editor ’s Desk

50 In Closing When innovation meets the heat

COVER STORY

12 Why all roads lead to liquid cooling

15 Can liquid cooling aid India’s tryst with a new destiny ?

18 Can floating data centers solve the heat crisis?

20 The science of monitoring data center airflows

FEATURES

41 Can it take the heat? Reassessing timber ’s role in data centers

44 Can Southeast Asia’s data centers thrive in a global trade storm

HIGHLIGHTS

21 Powering possibilities: The role of data centers in cloud and hybrid evolution

23 Shaping the global digital inf rastructure landscape

48 Chennai: The beating heart of South Asia’s interconnected digital ecosystem

INTERCONNECT WORLD SUPPLEMENT

31 What lies beneath

33 Singapore’s plan to become a premier networking hub

35 Sun, sand, subsea cables: The Middle East’s rise as a global digital crossroads

38 Discover APAC’s Connectivity Ecosystem with InterconnectWorld Asia 2025

From the Editor ’s Desk

Liquid cooling has emerged as quite a hot topic across the global cloud and data center industry.

With ever increasing need for energy efficient heat management in data centers, especially in the age of ar tificial intelligence (AI), different methods of liquid cooling are attracting the attention of digital inf rastructure developers and users.

So who is embracing liquid cooling? Is immersion cooling more popular than direct-to-chip or precision cooling? What kind of changes or upgrades are data center owners and operators willing to make to adopt liquid cooling? Will liquid cooling eventually make traditional cooling methods obsolete?

In this issue, we take a closer look at all these exciting elements of this evolving field of technology.

Also included is a special supplement examining the global connectivity ecosystem, where we take a deep dive into subsea cables, internet exchanges, telecommunications and peering across APAC and MENA

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together

Meet the team

Deborah Grey Editor-in-Chief
Jan Yong SEA Editor
Paul Mah Executive Editor

9–10 July 2025 | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM | Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Singapore

Open Compute Project SEA Tech Day

Driving Scalable, Sustainable Infrastructure for Southeast Asia’s Digital Future

As Southeast Asia cements its position as one of the world’s fastest-growing digital hubs, the region faces complex challenges: rising AI workloads, denser compute environments, and the urgent need for sustainable, future-ready infrastructure.

In response, the Open Compute Project (OCP)—in collaboration with W.Media—is hosting OCP SEA Tech Day, a full-day technical exchange spotlighting the open hardware and software innovations reshaping the data center landscape.

Designed for hyperscalers, data center operators, silicon providers, OEMs, and network architects, this gathering is rooted in practical insights and cross-industry collaboration. From silicon to system, rack to facility, OCP’s open standards are setting new benchmarks in efficiency, performance, and deployment at scale.

Join Us in Singapore

What to Expect

• In-depth sessions on AI infrastructure, Open Rack V3, power architecture, and liquid cooling

• First-hand insights into regulatory trends shaping DC growth in SEA

• Real-world case studies from hyperscalers, chipmakers, and systems integrators

• Networking with top-tier decision-makers and open hardware leaders

• Explore OCP Ready™ Certification and open standards for scalable sustainability

We’re opening the floor to sponsors and delegates who are helping shape the region’s digital future. Whether you’re building the tech or setting the strategy—this is where your voice belongs.

Interested in sponsoring?

Reach out to us at focus@w.media

Want to attend?

Secure your pass now: https://w.media/ocp/ocp-sea-tech-day

STT GDC breaks ground on Johor data center

In recent years, Johor has gained a reputation as the fastest-growing data center hub in Southeast Asia with some of the world’s biggest data center companies marking their presence there.

One of them is ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), one of the world’s fastest-growing data centre providers. According to news reports, it broke ground for its first data center facility in the STT Johor data centre campus – STT Johor 1 in February. Designed with an IT load capacity of 16MW, it is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2026.

STT GDC’s data centre campus has a development potential of 120MW of IT load. Spanning over 22 acres of land within the Nusa Cemerlang Industrial Park in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, just 15 kilometres from Singapore, its prime location ensures seamless connectivity, including integration with STT Singapore 5, STT GDC’s regional interconnection hub. STT Johor 1 is equipped to handle advanced computational workloads for enterprises, government agencies, and cloud service providers, capable

of rapidly deploying resourceintensive applications across various industries. This will support cuttingedge research, complex simulations and data-driven decision-making processes.

In addition to STT Singapore 5, STT Johor 1 will also be connected to STT Kuala Lumpur 1 and STT GDC’s other data centre interconnection hubs in Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines via a Data Centre Interconnect (DCI) service, providing customers in STT Johor 1 with highly reliable and seamless access to business opportunities in other major economies in the region. The campus will be powered by renewable and low-carbon energy sources with ongoing discussions with several renewable energy providers, such as Ditrolic Energy, to become the renewable electricity supplier.

India attracts billion-dollar investments into data centers at WEF 2025

This year, several big-ticket announcements were made at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, surrounding huge investments into digital infrastructure in India.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) exchanged a signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra at WEF, to formalise its plan to invest US$ 8.3 billion into cloud infrastructure in the AWS Asia-Pacific (Mumbai) Region in Maharashtra, to further expand cloud computing capacity in India. This investment is estimated to contribute US$ 15.3 billion to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and support more than 81,300 full-time jobs annually in the local data centre supply chain by 2030. Also at WEF, Sify Technologies Limited, one of India’s most prominent Digital ICT solutions providers, revealed plans to invest a whopping US$ 5 billion into expanding its data hubs, and integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations with cutting-edge GPUs. Sify’s plans include building smaller AI inferencing facilities in 20 Tier II cities. Meanwhile, CtrlS Datacenters, a major player in the Indian data center market, signed an MoU with the government of the southern Indian state of Telangana to build a cluster of AI-ready data centers with a proposed investment of over Rs 10,000 crores.

Tilman Global Holdings, a USbased holding company focused on creating, operating and investing in telecommunications and energy infrastructure, signed an MoU with Telangana indicating plans to invest Rs 15,000 crores in a 300MW hyperscale data center facility in the state. This facility will also support AI workloads, and will feature advanced cooling technologies and energy efficient systems.

Ursa Clusters, a US-based data center company also signed an MoU with the Telangana government. It plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore to build a 100MW AI data center hub in Hyderabad. The facility will reportedly utilize hybrid AI chips to foster an ecosystem for start-ups and enterprises.

Executives of STT GDC and officials from the Johor government come together for the groundbreaking ceremony of STT Johor 1.

Blackstone may sell two AirTrunk DCs in Australia

Bloomberg, has reported that Blackstone is considering the sale of two of AirTrunk’s Australian data centers.

Blackstone bought AirTrunk in a deal worth $16.1 billion last year, but is now reported to be considering selling the firm’s facilities in Sydney and Melbourne. The sale of the two data centers could raise up to AU$4 billion ($2.6bn). Blackstone would reinvest this money in AirTrunk with the reported objective of helping the company expand into new markets.

People familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg that Blackstone has engaged advisors to explore the sale but no final decision has been made. Which of the two AirTrunk data centers currently operational in Sydney would be put up for sale is unclear. The company’s SYD1 campus was completed in 2022 and offers a capacity of 130MW. SYD2 offers a capacity of over 120MW. A third Sydney campus is currently in development with a capacity of up to 320MW. Additionally, in Melbourne, the company operates a single data center campus which opened in 2017, and once expansion work is completed will

offer a capacity of 185MW. From its Australian origins, AirTrunk has moved in recent years to expand its footprint outside Australia, especially into Asia including a planned 270MW data center campus in Johor, Malaysia.

AI at the heart of investments into digital infrastructure in the Middle East

While India was attracting global attention at Davos, the Middle East saw a slew of big billion-dollar investment announcements at LEAP 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. LEAP 2025 is organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP), and Tahaluf Company, supported by the Events Investment Fund. Here are some of the most noteworthy announcements.

Equinix, a global player in the digital technology and connectivity ecosystem, announced plans to invest US$ 1 billion into building digital infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Equinix will develop carrier neutral data center facilities, to meet the growing demand for cloud, AI, and enterprise workloads. The data center facilities will deliver high-performance

interconnection solutions for enterprises and hyperscalers through the Equinix fabric platform.

Meanwhile, DataVolt, a major player in the digital infrastructure market in the Middle East, announced plans to develop a 1.5GW net zero AI factory campus in Oxagon, which is an underdevelopment industrial zone that is part of the wider futuristic NEOM project. The project would see investment worth US$ 5 billion. DataVolt also signed an agreement with the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON), to invest US$ 660 million into developing a data center in Riyadh’s Tech City. Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily), a renowned technology, media, and telecommunications company in Saudi Arabia, also announced big investment plans at LEAP saying that it will invest a whopping SAR 3.4

billion (US$ 905 million) into digital infrastructure such as data centers, submarine cables, and fiber networks in the Middle East.

Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, announced the launch of its first Middle East Cloud Region in Saudi Arabia. The Region will feature two availability zones with full redundancy, advanced cloud services, and AI capabilities. The announcement was followed by a business operation commitment of over US$ 150 million in infrastructure, resources, and investment over the next few years. The new availability zones are expected to be operational by 2025, and aim to enable the delivery of an expanded suite of SaaS and PaaS solutions to the Middle East.

AirTrunk’s SYD1 Sydney West data center is speculated to be a possible candidate to be sold but no confirmation yet from the company.
PHOTO BY AirTrunk

Vietnam on cusp of data center boom

Vietnam’s data center market is gaining momentum with investment projections rising to US$ 1.75 billion by 2030 from US$ 654 million in 2024, a CAGR of 17.93%, according to a recent report by Vietnam Data Center Market – Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2025-2030 .

The growth is driven by digital transformation, government policies, and increasing investments from both domestic and international players. Other favourable factors boosting Vietnam’s attractiveness as a key data centre hub in Southeast Asia include the relative affordability of its land and construction costs. According to Cushman & Wakefield’s Asia Pacific Data Centre Construction Cost Guide 2025, Vietnam has some of the lowest construction costs in the region. Its construction costs range from US$ 5.5-8.5 million per megawatt, with an average of US $6.935 million per MW, with land costs representing only 5% of total construction costs. Suburban land with available infrastructure in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi averages US$ 209 per square meter.The report also highlighted substantial investment opportunities in IT infrastructure, power, cooling, and general construction services. Improving infrastructure, increasing reliance on cloud services, thriving colocation market, growing enterprise digitalization initiatives and rapid adoption of AI, all point towards Vietnam’s increasing attractiveness as

Iron Mountain Data Centers takes over Web Werks

Iron Mountain Data Centers, a major player in the global data center industry which was thus far in a joint venture with Indian data center company Web Werks, has now taken over the latter. The change is effective April 1, 2025, and Web Werks will now

a data center hub in Southeast Asia. In addition, the data center industry is increasingly focused on energyefficient infrastructure such as liquid cooling and renewable energy. An example is Viettel’s green AI-ready data center, launched in April 2024 with a power capacity of 30MW. This aligns with the Vietnamese government’s pledge to achieve 39% renewable energy in the country’s energy mix by 2030.Vietnam is also planning to establish 10 new submarine cables by 2030, further bolstering its connectivity. In another significant move, the Vietnamese government has in July 2024 allowed foreign investors full ownership of data centers. The recent announcement of the setting up of SAM DigitalHub, a 50-ha (124-

acre), 150-MW data center campus initiative with a targeted investment of up to US$1.5 billion is yet further proof that demand for data centres is surging. This followed the entrance in 2024 of new players such as Epsilon Telecommunications (KT Corporation), Gaw Capital, and Infracrowd Capital.Despite challenges such as infrastructure limitations, cybersecurity risks, and talent shortages, the new entrants are coming well-prepared to face them. Operators are reportedly racing to expand their capacities to meet surging demand for cloud computing, fintech services, and AIdriven applications in key cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Currently, data centres number about 26 with 11 in the pipeline.

be known as Iron Mountain Data Centers.

In an official statement published on its website, Iron Mountain Data Centers explained how this came about, saying, “Since Iron Mountain and Web Werks first set up a joint venture four years ago, we have worked as a single team to meet customer needs in both existing and new data centers across India. To help this happen, Iron Mountain’s investment in the business increased over the years to 100% ownership, and we are

now ready to complete the integration of Web Werks within our global data center business.”

The acquisition has come with leadership change at the top. Web Werks founder Nikhil Rathi has stepped down as CEO. Rajesh Tapadia has taken over the day-to-day direction of the data center business in India as CEO, and will work very closely with Arvind Subramanian, Managing Director of Iron Mountain in India.

Ho Chi Minh City’s traffic scene
Photo by Jan Yong

Microsoft pulls plug on 2GW DC builds

Microsoft had abandoned data center projects with 2GW capacity in the U.S. and Europe in the last six months due to an oversupply relative to its current demand forecast, TD Cowen analysts said recently.

The tech giant’s withdrawal from new capacity leasing was largely led by the decision not to support additional training workloads from ChatGPT

maker OpenAI, the analysts led by Michael Elias said in a note, according to Reuters.Investor skepticism about the hefty artificial intelligence spending by U.S. tech firms has increased due to slow payoffs and the rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek, which showcased AI technology at a much lower cost than its Western rivals.

TD Cowen’s supply chain checks indicate that Microsoft’s pullback has led to Alphabet’s Google stepping in to backfill the capacity in international markets, while Meta Platforms does the same in the U.S. Microsoft, whose shares were down more than 1% on Wednesday, said, while

US$100B needed to fund APAC data center pipeline

Over US$116 billion will be needed to build out the existing colocation data centre pipeline across Asia Pacific in the coming five to seven years as demand for the sector grows, Cushman & Wakefield estimates in its recent report.

The H2 2024 Asia Pacific Data Centre Market Update report shows the pipeline of colocation projects (excluding hyperscale projects) in the region either currently under construction or in late-stage planning stands at 12,452 megawatts (MW). Using the construction cost of a mid-specification data centre for each market as a benchmark, the total capital required to build out the pipeline currently sits at US$116.2 billion. The estimated returns is over US$14.9 billion in annual colocation rent which can potentially achieve almost 13% yield-on-cost ratio for developers.Of the 12.45 gigawatts (GW) in the pipeline (which excludes land banking activity and projects in early planning stages), over 80% is held in five markets: Japan,

India, Australia, the Chinese mainland and Malaysia.

At a city level, Tokyo has the strongest pipeline within Asia Pacific at 1,656 MW, followed by Mumbai (1,143 MW), Johor (1,049 MW), Sydney (783 MW), and Beijing (613 MW). In these key cities, gross yield on cost increases to 14%. Pritesh Swamy, Head of Research & Insights, Data Centre Group, Asia Pacific said amid rising demand, the Asia Pacific development pipeline has exceeded existing operational capacity by three times. This has increased investment in this sector as investors are drawn by the massive potential. “This is evidenced by the sector’s increasing share of annual real estate investment volumes,” he concluded. Gordon Marsden, Head of Capital

it ay “strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions”. It added its plans to spend US$80 billion on AI infrastructure this fiscal year are on track.In February, TD Cowen analysts had said that Microsoft had scrapped leases totalling “a couple of hundred megawatts” of capacity with at least two private data center operators. AI cloud startup CoreWeave, which provides access to data centers, earlier this month said it had not seen any contract cancellations after the Financial Times reported that Microsoft, its largest customer, had moved away from some agreements.

Markets, Asia Pacific, said that the high CAGR of about 20-plus per cent and great rental returns mean that the sector would continue to attract more investors. Although consolidation is expected as the sector matures, in the near term, “the capital requirements mean the sector continues to attract vast capital at a faster rate than other asset classes in the CRE universe.” He added that a flurry of valuation activity in response to recent transactions in Japan, Korea and Singapore mostly involving legacy data centres has provided some clarity around pricing in the past 18 months.

Pritesh Swamy

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Why all roads lead to Liquid Cooling

Beyond 50kW per rack, traditional air cooling becomes impractical, both due to excessive noise and the energy demands of driving fans fast

enough to keep temperatures in check.

For decades, these facilities were optimized for traditional workloads: steady, predictable, and relatively easy to cool. But the landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, as enterprise GPUs entered the picture and pushed power densities to unprecedented levels.

Compared to legacy compute, GPUs consume far more power and generate significantly more heat, straining the limits of traditional cooling methods. Consequently, liquid cooling, once reserved for niche, high-performance environments, is now emerging as a practical and scalable solution. Its growing role in AI deployments is now prompting a broader re-evaluation of traditional workloads that were not previously considered.

Slowly, ploddingly, then all at once

To be clear, the rise of average kilowatt per rack has been forecasted for many years. But while virtualization, hyper converged infrastructure, and later containerization did drive gradual increases, the growth was far less dramatic than many expected. Rack densities did rise – but only in small steps. According to the latest Uptime Institute survey, the average remains around 8kW per rack in 2024.

The launch of ChatGPT on the last day of November in 2022 arguably changed everything. Suddenly, the scaling law for AI, once familiar mainly to researchers, captured mainstream

attention, as ChatGPT showed how larger models could deliver striking gains in capability. Overnight, demand for GPU deployments surged, as tech giants raced to build new data centers and stake their claim in the next era of computing.

And every new generation of GPUs draws even more power than the last. A resurgent Nvidia has helped redefine the industry, cementing its pole position with increasingly powerful GPUs. The H200, the current mainstay in most parts of the world requires up to 50kW per fully populated rack. The Blackwell-based Nvidia NVL72 supercomputer is up to 130kW. And at GTC 2025 this year, Nvidia advised

Liquid cooling is no longer optional; it’s the only viable solution.

the industry to plan for an astonishing 600kW of power per rack by 2027.

At these dizzying power densities, traditional air cooling becomes unworkable. Beyond 50kW per rack, the airflow required becomes impractical, both due to excessive noise and the energy demands of driving fans fast enough to keep temperatures in check.

Liquid cooling is no longer optional; it’s the only viable solution. Accordingly, liquid cooling is being built into AI data centers designed to power the next generation of AI models.

The rise of liquid cooling

Unsurprisingly, this shift has spurred a wave of new systems purpose-built to support liquid cooling at higher rack densities. At the same time, the industry is beginning to reconsider liquid cooling’s role in non-AI environments. Inference workloads are also moving beyond hyperscalers and into traditional data centers, driving rack densities higher and bringing new cooling demands with them.

This broader applicability has fueled a rapid expansion of liquid cooling technologies, each designed to suit different deployment models and operational requirements. So, what are the viable options available today? Several types of systems are now on the market, each with its own trade-offs in complexity, efficiency, and ease of integration.

• Rear door active cooling (RDHx): Uses a liquid-cooled heat exchanger mounted on the server rack’s rear door to remove hot air before it enters the room.

• Direct to chip cooling: Circulates coolant through cold plates

mounted directly on CPUs and GPUs, efficiently extracting heat at the source inside the server.

• Immersion cooling: Entire servers are submerged in dielectric fluid, allowing heat to dissipate passively or actively without using traditional air-based cooling systems.

• As with any technology, cooling efficiency is just one part of the equation. Cost, compatibility with existing infrastructure, maintenance needs, and total cost of ownership all play a role. While immersion cooling offers the highest efficiency, it comes with significant upfront investment and requires careful preparation of equipment for both deployment and servicing. RDHx, on the other hand, is well-suited for retrofits but has limits in how much heat it can effectively manage.

Handle with care

To be clear, liquid cooling isn’t a silver bullet for every data center. While it offers undeniable advantages at high power densities, it introduces a new set of engineering and operational challenges. For one, it tends to be more expensive and complex to install and maintain. Servicing is also less straightforward than with air-cooled systems, often requiring additional care and longer downtimes.

Over time, even microscopic particles can damage pumps, clog microchannels, or trigger corrosion.

There is the added risk of leaks. Even with well-designed systems, the presence of liquid in close proximity to sensitive electronics requires cautious handling. Contamination is another major concern. Installation and retrofitting work inside a data center can introduce metal shavings, construction debris, or lubricants into the system. Over time, even microscopic particles can damage pumps, clog microchannels, or trigger corrosion. These problems are often difficult to detect early and can be costly to resolve once they appear.

Managing liquid differs significantly from traditional air cooling. It calls for a shift in operational responsibilities, including the need to maintain coolant quality, adopt shared procedures across facilities teams and IT, and provide cross-training for operators and technical staff. In some environments, these added complexities may outweigh the benefits; the decision to adopt liquid cooling should therefore be based on clear operational needs

Source: Rittal

Rather than full-scale replacement, operators are layering liquid cooling into existing environments where it delivers clear value, typically for AI clusters and other high-density workloads. Etlsewhere, air cooling continues to perform reliably.

Designed for what’s next and what’s now

This is why a hybrid approach is taking hold. Rather than fullscale replacement, operators are layering liquid cooling into existing environments where it delivers clear value, typically for AI clusters and other high-density workloads. Elsewhere, air cooling continues to perform reliably. This pragmatic stance reflects both economic reality and operational caution, allowing organizations to leverage the benefits of liquid cooling where needed most while avoiding unnecessary disruption to established infrastructure.

center in Jakarta is taking a similar approach, allocating specific areas for high-density deployments.

This zoned model gives operators the agility to scale liquid cooling adoption over time while keeping proven air-cooled systems in place where appropriate. It provides teams with the opportunity to build up operational expertise gradually, rather than having to manage an abrupt shift across the entire facility. As infrastructure demands evolve, data centers can be adapted without requiring a complete overhaul.

In the long run, as AI workloads grow more complex and rack densities continue to rise, the case for liquid cooling will only strengthen. Whether adopted gradually through hybrid builds or embraced in purpose-built high-density zones, the direction of travel is clear. For those shaping the future of infrastructure, all roads increasingly lead to liquid cooling. Source:

Despite the growing momentum behind liquid cooling, air cooling will remain the default for most non-AI data centers in the near term. Much of that comes down to familiarity. Air cooling is well understood, widely deployed, and supported by a mature ecosystem of systems and tools. The risks are fewer, with concerns like leaks or fluid contamination largely off the table.

In new builds, flexibility is now a design priority. Increasingly, data centers are being constructed to support both air and liquid cooling, with different floors or halls optimized for different workload profiles. For example, Empyrion Digital’s upcoming KR1 facility in Seoul will have some levels designed for traditional air cooling, while others support liquid-cooled infrastructure. The SM+ SMX01 data

Can liquid cooling aid India’s tryst with a new destiny?

“Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny…” said India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in a historic speech delivered on the eve of its Independence in 1947. Now, three quarters of a century later, India is poised to embrace its new destiny as a hub of modern technology and communications.

Today India accounts for over 1GW of data center capacity, and even that falls miserably short of the demand generated by its 1.4 billion tech savvy citizens who account for one of the largest user bases of smart phones, using apps to cater to every need from grocery delivery to booking cabs to online shopping every day. India has also emerged as one of the fastest adopters of AI, and the demand for High Performance Computing (HPC) is also growing. This makes it imperative for its data centers to find innovative ways to effectively manage the considerably greater amount of heat generated by AI and HPC workloads.

But given India’s tropical location, and climate change induced extreme weather events such as heat waves that have become increasingly frequent, this is easier said than done with just traditional air-based cooling or even using water for heat removal.

CRACking the cooling code

In a geographically diverse country like India, favourable ambient temperature is present only in the northern and mountainous regions, where it is usually unfeasible to build data centers due to uneven terrain and seismic activity. The rest of the country has average temperatures ranging from 28 to 32

degrees Celsius, and these can go upwards of 40 degrees Celsius during summer. This can put a lot of pressure on air-based cooling systems in data centers.

Moreover, traditional air-cooling systems such as using computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units and airflow management techniques often require more space to accommodate raised floors, air ducts etc. Additionally, air cooling is less energy efficient, especially for high-density computing environments.

Meanwhile, liquids have higher thermal conductivity than air, meaning they conduct heat up to 1,000 times better than air, making them far more efficient in cooling high-power processors. Moreover, by eliminating the need for excessive air conditioning, liquid cooling lowers operational costs in the long run. Additionally, liquidcooled systems require fewer air ducts and cooling units, enabling more compact and efficient data center designs.

Chemours technical manager explaining liquid cooling heat transfer process using Opteon™ 2P50 dielectric fluid in Chemours immersion cooling lab|Image courtesy: Chemours

Water, water, (not) everywhere…

Now, the first liquid that comes to mind is water, and for decades using water has been a popular heat management technique across the world. But India’s ground realities such as water scarcity, as well as its inherent limitations are fast making this technique unviable. Even if one were to switch to recycled water, that too requires investments into recycling infrastructure, and then building and maintaining the apparatus that brings the recycled water to the data center. Other alternatives are also just glorified bandaid solutions in the long run.

“The industry has already begun moving to direct-to-chip cooling using water, glycol, and additives to remove heat directly from components. While this solution works for now, water also has physical limitations; as chips get hotter and the required water temperatures get lower, this technology would become increasingly impractical,” says Dhruv Varma, AP Liquid Cooling Business Development Leader, Chemours. “As the number of components requiring liquid cooling inside a server increases, we expect the industry to continue evolving from this spot-cooling approach to consider alternative liquid cooling solutions, such as two-phase direct-to-chip and immersion cooling.”

Therefore, India’s data centers are considering dipping their toes into

the new and exciting world of Liquid Cooling.

What do the numbers say?

According to Persistence Market Research’s Data Center Liquid Cooling Market report, the global data center liquid cooling market is set to grow from US$ 4.1 billion in 2024 to US$ 19.4 billion by 2031, at a Compounded Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.6 percent. Increasing data center density, demand for energy efficiency, and high-performance computing are driving adoption. Liquid cooling is 40 percent more energy-efficient than air cooling, making it ideal for hyperscale data centers, AI, and cloud computing.

Trends are similar in India as well.

“The India Data Center Cooling Market size is estimated at US$ 2.38 billion in 2025, and is expected to reach US$ 8.32 billion by 2031, at a CAGR of 23.21 percent during the forecast period (2025-2031),” says Mordor Intelligence in its India Data Center Cooling Market Size & Share Analysis Report (2025-2031).

The report further explains the reasons behind this enthusiastic adoption saying, “Direct liquid cooling (DLC) solutions consistently achieve impressive partial power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratings, typically ranging from 1.02 to 1.03. This places them ahead of even the most efficient air cooling systems, surpassing them by a slight margin, usually in the low single-digit percentage range.”

“As AI workloads push the boundaries of thermal design and power density, liquid cooling enables us to achieve superior energy efficiency and thermal control. It significantly reduces PUE and supports sustainability goals by lowering our carbon footprint.”

Liquid Cooling adoption in India

“As AI workloads push the boundaries of thermal design and power density, liquid cooling enables us to achieve superior energy efficiency and thermal control. It significantly reduces PUE and supports sustainability goals by lowering our carbon footprint,” says Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director & Head, Data Centre, India, CapitaLand Investment. “While air cooling will remain relevant for traditional loads, we see liquid cooling becoming the default for high-density, performance-intensive environments.”

Even manufacturers of modular data centers are looking to incorporate liquid cooling in their designs.

“One of the primary advantages of modular data centers is their ability to incorporate advanced cooling technologies like direct-to-chip liquid cooling, immersion cooling, rear door heat exchangers etc.,” says Anjani Kumar Kommisetti, Head of Business, Rhine XCircle. “These technologies can be deployed more effectively in a modular setup, offering precise temperature control and lowering energy consumption, which directly reduces the carbon footprint.”

Surajit
Persistence Research Data Gfx

“As the number of components requiring liquid cooling inside a server increases, we expect the industry to continue evolving from this spotcooling approach to consider alternative liquid cooling solutions, such as two-phase direct-to-chip and immersion cooling.”

Choosing the right cooling mix

There are already a variety of solutions for users with different needs and conditions. While some are opting for Immersion Cooling, where entire servers are immersed in a dielectric fluid, others are looking at precision cooling where the cooling fluid is directed to specific parts of the server that need cooling. Direct to chip cooling where fluid is directed to the heated chip has emerged as a popular method of cooling. So how do you choose the right cooling method for your data center?

“An optimised cooling mix, using direct-to-chip liquid cooling for dense AI clusters, combined with enhanced air cooling for general-purpose IT loads, ensures operational flexibility and energy optimisation,” says Surajit

Chatterjee. “The ideal blend depends on workload types, rack densities, and sustainability targets, and we continuously calibrate our designs to align with evolving customer and environmental needs.”

“In today’s landscape, the application defines the chips and the hardware, which in turn define what type of infrastructure may be needed to support that hardware and hence application. As a result, facilities teams need to look at their organization’s technology roadmap to better anticipate what type of hardware they may need in the future,” says Dhruv Varma. “The power density of the chips and the hardware, in addition to any anticipated constraints of space, power, water, location, and budget should all be factored in while picking what’s right for you,” he advises.

Dhruv Varma, AP Liquid Cooling Business Development Leader, Chemours
Opteon™ 2P50 dielectric fluid in 4U two-phase immersion cooling tank|Image courtesy: Chemours

Can floating data centers solve the heat crisis?

Floating data centers promise to address land, power, and cooling woes.

The idea of floating data centers has been bobbing around for some time now.

The latest announcement of a floating data center about to be built off Yokohama in autumn 2025 has people excited again. Although only a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by a consortium of Japanese companies, the prospect of an offshore floating data center utilizing 100% renewable energy is looking very bright indeed.

The parties to the MOU, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, NTT Facilities, Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation, MUFG Bank, and the city of Yokohama, are looking to build an experimental green data center that they have described as the world’s first offshore floating green data center.

More than cooling

To be built on a mini float or “floating berthing facility”, the demonstration project would be initially powered by both solar and battery energy, to be

supplemented later with wind power. If successful, further developments in the waterfront and sea areas of Yokohama port would be explored. According to Eurus’ press release, this project would set new standards for future data centers which are envisioned to operate entirely on renewable energy and emit no greenhouse gases during operation.

The future data centers would ideally utilise offshore wind power by being situated near offshore wind farms to maximise off-grid use of electricity. It would also eliminate the challenges of onshore data center construction, such as shortages of land and construction contractors, as well as extended construction lead times.

Globally, data centers face four structural bottlenecks: land scarcity – especially in urban and coastal regions – power grid limitations, water shortages and climate risk such as earthquakes, floodings and temperature fluctuation. The floating data centers offer a potential solution to all these challenges.

In addition, its modular construction allows for flexible deployment. The container-like modular design is optimised for

salt-resistance, modularity and rapid deployment. The floating data center would be monitored real time on temperature, humidity, vibration, energy stability, and uptime. Energy storage and cooling redundancy are retained to maintain autonomous operations.

Globally, data centers face four structural bottlenecks: land scarcity – especially in urban and coastal regions – power grid limitations, water shortages and climate risk such as earthquakes, floodings and temperature fluctuation. The floating data centers offer a potential solution to all these challenges.

Singapore’s floating data center

Meanwhile, Singapore’s own experimental floating data center project, a first on the island nation, is still in the preparatory stage. The Keppel Data Centres’ Floating Data Centre Park (FDCP) project aims to alleviate land, water and energy constraints of traditional data centres. Similar to the Yokohama debut model, the FDCP also features a modular design and aims to harness seawater for cooling, thereby increasing cooling efficiency by up to 80%, by their estimate. Indeed, the

Architectural image of Keppel Floating Data Centre Park
Source: Keppel

proposed seawater district cooling system will be 10 times larger than the largest built in the world.

The planned floating data center also avoids the use of potable or industrial water in cooling towers and is envisioned to optimize energy usage by integrating LNG and possibly hydrogen infrastructure for onsite power generation.

In conclusion, a floating data center may be preferable if cooling efficiency,access to renewable energy, or coastal proximity are critical. They also help when land is costly or scarce, and maritime risks are manageable. These factors apply to Yokohama and Singapore, and could benefit other coastal regions too. Whether this becomes the standard model for future data centers is still uncertain. Key challenges remain, especially in maintenance and reliable renewable power.

Architectural image of Eurus-led floating data center off Yokohama

Comparison between floating and land-based data centers

Cooling Efficiency

Renewable Energy Integration

Land & Building costs

Connectivity

Disaster Resilience

Security

Environmental Concerns

Engineering and Maintenance

Legal Issues

Floating DC

Utilise the surrounding sea as a heat sink for cooling and hence reducing treated water consumption.

Potential synergy with offshore wind, tidal, or wave energy sources

Avoids high land costs in urban/coastal areas while modular designs may offer scalable & cost-effective expansion

Placement near coastal cities can reduce latency issue and improve connectivity.

Less vulnerable to land-based risks e.g., earthquakes, floods but must withstand maritime hazards e.g. storms, tsunamis & saltwater corrosion.

Physical isolation may deter unauthorized access but vulnerable to maritime threats e.g. piracy, collisions.

Discharging warm water could harm marine ecosystems.

Higher initial costs for marine-grade infrastructure (corrosion-resistant materials, stabilization systems) while maintenance requires specialized marine access.

Jurisdictional ambiguities in international waters and compliance with maritime/environmental regulations add complexity.

Land-based DC

Higher energy expenditure for cooling, especially in warm climates, unless using geothermal, etc.

Depending on location, wind and solar can be harnessed.

Space constraints & high land costs in urban areas while environmental impact from land-use changes (e.g., habitat disruption). But established construction practices and infrastructure reduce upfront investment.

Reliable grid connections and terrestrial fiber networks ensure consistent operation.

Susceptible to earthquakes, floods, or wildfires, depending on location

Tight 24-hour security is possible with state-of-the-art equipment.

Not an issue so far.

Accessible for repairs, maintenance, and physical security measures without marine logistics.

Clear compliance with local laws, data sovereignty requirements, and environmental standards.

Source: Eurus

The science of monitoring data center airflows

Data center deployments are often messy.Real-world deployment conditions rarely mirror what we envision on paper. And as new equipment is swapped in or server utilisation changes over time, assumptions and conditions that once worked might no longer reflect new operational realities.

It doesn’t help that rack densities are slowly but inexorably rising. A decade ago, the typical workload drew around 3kW per rack. Today, that figure has jumped to an average of 8kW, according to the 2024 Uptime Institute survey. And with the rise of AI workloads, demands are set to grow even steeper. AI training and inference rely on high-performance GPUs, with the latest servers consuming up to 50kW per rack, and in the case of Blackwell deployments, even hitting 130kW.

Removing the guesswork

Traditional air-cooling strategies, including hot aisle and cold aisle layouts as well as containment techniques, are increasingly struggling to keep up. On paper, everything might look good: airflow simulations, power estimates, cooling layouts. But reality rarely follows the script. As rack densities climb and workloads grow more complex, data centers become hotter, more unpredictable, and far harder to manage. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of real-time visibility into airflow. Without accurate, continuous measurements, operators are left to rely on guesswork or theoretical models that may no longer apply. What if we could take this guesswork out of the equation – even in live production environments? That’s one of the premises behind EkkoSense Critical, a cloud-based data center management platform. It brings together advanced analytics, machine learning, and integration with both its proprietary and existing sensor

infrastructure to give operators a realtime view of thermal performance.

Rather than relying on static designs, data center teams can now respond to airflow changes to adjust cooling strategies. This reduces inefficiencies, improves sustainability, and shifts operations from reactive maintenance to proactive optimization. Operators can move beyond reactive maintenance and toward proactive optimization to target the right zones, at the right time, and with the right amount of energy.

Robert Linsdell, APAC general manager at EkkoSense, says the platform has delivered average power savings of 15%. He explains that EkkoSense uses repurposed video game platforms combined with dense instrumentation to visualise airflows within data halls or rooms using easyto-understand colour codes. For a data hall with between 100 and 150 racks, it takes just a day to build the model, two days to instrument, and one day to go live, he says.

When data meets thermal reality

One of the most powerful features of advanced telemetry, as shared by Peter Simon, technology lead for EkkoSense APAC during a presentation at the Sydney Cloud & Datacenter Convention last year, is its ability to replay the thermal state of a room at any point in time. With everything recorded, operators can roll back to a specific date to see exactly what was happening: airflow patterns, cooling effectiveness, and even potential risks. “It’s like having a thermal time machine,” he said.

This before-and-after comparison allows data center teams to visualise improvements, troubleshoot anomalies, and defend service-level agreements with hard evidence. Issues that previously went unnoticed, such as reversed airflow, blanking panels left ajar, or underperforming containment, can now be flagged, diagnosed, and resolved quickly.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the solution is its simplicity. It consists of sensors strategically positioned across the data hall, paired with a

suitable number of controller units. Once installed, data collection begins immediately, giving facility managers the ability to monitor live changes in real time – and do so remotely. This enables timely interventions when something goes wrong and gives operational teams a clear, continuous view of conditions that were previously hidden. As a result, cooling is no longer managed on assumptions but on insight, shifting responses from reactive to precise.

Smarter airflow monitoring promises a lot: real-time insight, datadriven precision, and the potential to unlock significant energy savings. But like many innovations in the data center world, its impact will ultimately depend on execution. Sensors and dashboards alone won’t fix airflow inefficiencies unless operational teams are willing and equipped to act on what the data shows.Even so, the broader trend points in a promising direction. As workloads grow denser and cooling margins tighter, tools that help make the invisible visible are a welcome step forward. If nothing else, they give operators a fighting chance to do more with less. And in today’s landscape, that may be the most crucial advantage of all.

Peter Simon demonstrating EkkoSense at Sydney CDC 2024.

Powering possibilities: The role of Data Centers in Cloud and Hybrid evolution

Blending on-premise infrastructure with cloud platforms, hybrid clouds offer a bespoke solution that strikes the perfect balance between performance, cost, and security.

Every moment we send a message, stream a video, or place an online order, we tap into a vast, hidden network that connects our world. In the background, data centers power these links, unlocking the explosive growth of cloud services and the seamless integration of hybrid environments.

Today, data centers are much more than mere storage facilities – they propel the evolution of the digital economy. This industry is currently experiencing unprecedented growth across both advanced and developing economies. Take India, for instance; CareEdge Ratings projects that India’s data center capacity will double to approximately 2,000 MW by 2026, making the nation a key player in the global data center market.

Fueling the cloud revolution

The global cloud market is currently valued at $1.2 trillion and none of this

would’ve been possible without data centers. After all, data centers form the physical foundation that empowers cloud platforms to scale effortlessly, delivering flexibility and innovative solutions to businesses across the planet. This scalability allows cloud providers to accommodate varying workloads and user demands efficiently.

In recent years, their capabilities have further enhanced, especially with the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI-powered automation optimizes resource allocation and energy consumption, resulting in more efficient operations.

In practical terms, this is transforming multiple sectors: in healthcare, for example, data centers combined with AI can rapidly analyze patient data for quicker diagnoses and enable telemedicine in remote areas; in finance, advanced infrastructure underpins real-time transaction processing and sophisticated fraud detection; and in education, scalable cloud platforms support personalized

learning experiences for millions of students worldwide.

The best of both worlds

The advent of the cloud significantly altered the IT landscape; however, it is the rise of hybrid environments that is truly redefining how businesses optimize their operations. Blending on-premise infrastructure with cloud platforms, hybrid clouds offer a bespoke solution that strikes the perfect balance between performance, cost, and security. This model allows critical data to remain on-premises while leveraging the scalability cloud environment offers for fluctuating workloads, ensuring optimal performance.

From a broader perspective, it helps balance capital and operational expenses, which can help businesses stretch the lifecycle of existing infrastructure while avoiding overinvestment.

Hybrid clouds also improve resilience, offering seamless workload distributions during outages while allowing

Today, data centers are much more than mere storage facilities—they propel the evolution of the digital economy while driving innovation and efficiency.

innovation to thrive and supporting rapid development in the cloud without disrupting core operations.

Hybrid environments unlock the avenues for future technologies such as edge computing, where real-time data processing happens locally while leveraging cloud analytics for broader insights. Even though managing a hybrid model demands robust tools and strategies, its adaptability makes it essential for organizations looking to drive agility, innovation, and growth.

What’s

in it for business leaders

For business leaders, the integration of data centers and cloud technologies presents both opportunities and challenges – they can help reduce the time-to-market for new products with scalable resources for rapid prototyping and testing and foster a culture of innovation for the organization. With a robust and scalable infrastructure, customers can have seamless interactions with digital platforms, boosting satisfaction and loyalty.

Early adopters of advanced technologies can gain a considerable edge over competitors by bettering operational efficiency and enabling novel business models. Advanced analytics and AI capabilities made possible by modern data centers can offer actionable insights, empowering business leaders with better decisionmaking and strategic planning.

However, the journey to getting there is cluttered with obstacles.

Navigating the transition

For an effective transition to cloud services and hybrid environments, careful planning and execution is imperative. It starts by developing a comprehensive IT strategy that aligns with business goals. This includes assessing current infrastructure, identifying existing gaps, and charting out clear objectives for migration.

Additionally, investing in training programs to upskill existing staff while attracting new talent proficient in cloud technologies, data analytics, and cybersecurity is equally important. What’s also critical is implementing robust risk management practices. These measures help address potential security threats while ensuring compliance with data protection laws and other regulations.

Lastly, collaborating with reputable cloud service providers and data center operators can help unlock expertise and support throughout the transition process, moving past the risks that often engulf such transitions.

The road ahead

The next 10 years will see hyperscale facilities evolve to support the growing demand for AI, machine learning, and resource-intensive workloads. We will also witness the rapid proliferation of smaller, edge data centers, which will

reduce latency and support applications such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT). This shift towards both hyperscale and edge data centers will cater to diverse needs while enhancing performance across industries.

Moreover, AI and machine learning will play a central role in the operation of data centers, from optimizing power consumption and cooling systems to enabling predictive maintenance and resource allocation. The incorporation of sustainable practices such as renewable energy, liquid cooling, and waste heat recycling will drive the green revolution within data centers, making them more eco-friendly and energy-efficient.

As data centers become smarter and more autonomous, we will see the rise of self-healing infrastructures, capable of predicting and correcting failures with minimal human intervention. Modular, prefabricated data centers will also become more common, enabling rapid deployment and scaling in remote locations and catering to businesses with specific needs. At the same time, compliance with local data sovereignty laws will push for more localized data storage and more stringent data protection measures.

The next decade will see data centers evolve to become smarter, more resilient, and greener, supporting a vast array of applications across sectors.

Shaping the global digital infrastructure landscape

As global demand for data storage, AI workloads, and cloud services continues to rise, Malaysia has emerged as a key player in Southeast Asia’s data centre market.

The increasing need for highperformance computing infrastructure to support AI-driven innovation is accelerating investments in digital infrastructure. Guided by the National Investment Aspirations (NIA), the country prioritizes highvalue sectors such as Electrical & Electronics, the Digital Economy, and Pharmaceuticals, positioning itself as a regional hub for future-ready technologies and investments.

In Malaysia, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) play a crucial role in facilitating both foreign and local digital investments. As part of this initiative, the Data Centre Task Force (DCTF), co-chaired by International Trade and Industry (MITI) Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz and Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, addresses industry concerns, plans investment strategies, and ensures sustainable growth in

the data centre sector. The DCTF will introduce policies to streamline data centre development and improve coordination within the ecosystem. The government also provides incentives, regulatory facilitation, and a supportive environment to boost digital investments and growth.

Digital infrastructure investments and milestones

Since 2021, the government has approved 21 data centre projects under the Digital Ecosystem Acceleration Scheme, totaling USD23.9 billion in investment. Foreign investment remains the primary driver, contributing 90% (USD21.5 billion) of the total, with the remaining 10% (USD2.4 billion) coming from domestic sources.

Several high-profile projects have propelled Malaysia’s data centre industry forward. The rise of hyperscalers began in 2022, marked by Bridge Data Centres launching its first phase in Johor, with ByteDance as the anchor tenant, solidifying the region’s status as a hub for multinational corporations. Johor, catering primarily to regional markets, complements Greater Kuala Lumpur, which serves the growing domestic demand for digital infrastructure. Since then, Malaysia has attracted data centre investors from both the East and West, including major players such as DayOne (previously known as ‘GDS’), Princeton Digital Group, Yondr, and others— reinforcing the country’s position as a digital infrastructure hotspot in Southeast Asia.

In 2024, technology giants like Oracle, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are setting up cloud regions in Malaysia, reflecting the country’s growing significance in the digital economy. This influx of major players is driven by the increasing demand for AI Infrastructure as a Service, spurred by the rapid advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) technologies. Johor, in particular, is experiencing a data centre boom, largely fueled by multinational corporations with regional operations, while other parts of Malaysia focus on meeting domestic demand.

Government policies and incentives

Malaysia combines fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to support digital infrastructure investments. The Digital Ecosystem Acceleration (DESAC) Schemes provides significant tax relief for promoted digital activities, offering up to 10 years tax incentive based on value of investments or lower corporate tax rate. Notably, DESAC takes a holistic approach to digital infrastructure development—beyond data centres and cloud infrastructure, submarine cable landing stations are also recognized as activities qualify for tax incentive. This inclusion reflects the government’s recognition that robust and secure global connectivity is essential to supporting Malaysia’s digital ecosystem.

Furthermore, the Malaysia Digital Status provides a range of tax and non-tax incentives, such as duty-free importation and sales tax exemptions for multimedia equipment, unrestricted employment of foreign knowledge

Deloitte Malaysia

workers, 100% foreign ownership of local entities, and the ability to source funding and raise capital internationally, enhancing the country’s appeal to investors.

Balancing FDI and sustainability

Sustainability is increasingly central to Malaysia’s approach to attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly in the digital infrastructure sector. The government encourages alignment with ESG principles, integrating economic, social, and environmental factors into investment planning. While Malaysia provides a strong framework for digital infrastructure investments, ensuring long-term sustainability requires navigating challenges such as regulatory complexities, cost thresholds, and evolving guidelines— especially in Johor, which has become a key destination for data centre investments. To facilitate coordinated and sustainable growth, the Johor state government, in partnership with PLANMalaysia Johor, introduced the Johor State Data Centre Development Planning Guideline in June 2024 to better manage and facilitate data centre activities in the region.

In addition to incentives, the Malaysian government ensures that growth aligns with sustainability by addressing the resource-intensive nature of data centre investments. The launch of the Guideline for Sustainable Development of Data Centres in December 2024, alongside the Digital Ecosystem Acceleration (DESAC)

scheme, aims to attract high-quality digital infrastructure projects while promoting responsible development. The guidelines focus on minimizing energy, water, and carbon footprints of data centres, particularly given the sector’s high resource demands with key sustainability metrics, such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), and Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE), benchmarked across data centre categories like colocation and hyperscalers, reinforcing Malaysia’s leadership in sustainable digital infrastructure.

The Johor-Singapore SEZ

The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) represents a strategic convergence of infrastructure, policy, and cross-border cooperation— poised to become a leading node in Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure landscape. Adjacent to Singapore, one of the world’s most mature data centre markets, JS-SEZ offers a natural extension of regional capacity by blending Singapore’s global connectivity and operational excellence with Malaysia’s land availability, skilled talent pool, and cost competitiveness.

This synergy positions JS-SEZ as a regional data centre powerhouse— not just in terms of hosting capacity, but also through the development of end-to-end digital infrastructure components. Johor is seeing increased localization of the value chain, with the establishment of server rack manufacturing (e.g., Wiwynn

Malaysia, along with its regional partners, is poised to lead Southeast Asia’s digital transformation, positioning the region as a significant player in the global digital infrastructure landscape

Corporation’s plant), renewable energy investments, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering capabilities like TECO Electric & Machinery Co.’s acquisition of NCL Energy Sdn Bhd.

Looking forward, the adoption of advanced technologies such as battery energy storage systems (BESS) will further enhance energy resilience and sustainability. These developments collectively reinforce the JS-SEZ’s role as a pivotal regional gateway—powering the next wave of AI-ready, sustainable, and globally connected data centre solutions in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia, along with its regional partners, is poised to lead Southeast Asia’s digital transformation, positioning the region as a significant player in the global digital infrastructure landscape. The expanding digital economy, supported by robust government policies and strategic investments, creates abundant opportunities for investors and operators. This holistic vision of a digitally connected and sustainable Southeast Asia offers immense potential to shape the future of the global digital economy.

Raising the bar for AI infrastructure in Asia

Building a new generation of AI-ready data centers

The data center landscape in Asia Pacific is dynamic and rapidly expanding, with the market projected to reach an estimated US$4 trillion by 2030[1]. Driving this trajectory is intensifying digitalization, the rise of cloud computing, and a sharp increase in data consumption – further amplified by emerging technologies like AI. With this momentum, it’s no surprise that Asia Pacific is now a global hot spot for data center investment and innovation.

In a time of such transformation and breakneck growth, what if you could design a data center from scratch? What might it look like, and how would it be different from the data centers of the past? Across the region, the opportunity to rethink digital infrastructure from the ground up is opening the door to new standards of scalability, performance and sustainability.

Engineered to be AI-ready

Founded in 2021, Empyrion Digital emerged at the cusp of Asia’s rapid data center growth. Following its acquisition of the SG1 Dodid Data Centre in Singapore that same year, the company has announced new developments in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Based on its current growth trajectory, Empyrion Digital is on track to expand its panAsian platform to over 170MW of IT load across the region by the end of 2025.

Fueling this expansion is a customer-first mindset, shaped by the needs of its customers who include the major hyperscalers and enterprises. These customers prefer facilities in central business and metropolitan districts that are located in close proximity to internet exchanges, prompting Empyrion Digital to focus on sites in core Asia markets where demand is strongest.

One example of this would be the upcoming AI-ready KR1 data center located in South Korea. KR1 will be the first new data center built in over a decade within Seoul’s Gangnam area, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of Seoul – and South Korea’s future AI hub. Despite power moratoriums in place across Seoul, KR1 has secured 40MW of power to support AI-intensive workloads. This is especially significant given that many of the existing facilities in the vicinity, and within the country, are aging and unable to cope with rising demands of AI and HPC.

Empyrion has also taken a fundamentally different approach to their builds by bridging thoughtful design and sustainable operations. From power and cooling to network infrastructure, every aspect has been reimagined to shape a product that meets future demand. While it brings strong capabilities in data center development and operations, it partners with specialists in fiber connectivity, cooling and AI hardware to address market opportunities and environmental concerns. By tapping

Empyrion has also taken a fundamentally different approach to their builds by bridging thoughtful design and sustainable operations.

into these partnerships, Empyrion ensures its facilities are not only efficient but well supported by a comprehensive ecosystem that attracts and retains key customers, freeing itself to focus on delivering reliable, future-ready infrastructure.

Sustainable development

At a time when sustainability is no longer optional, how did Empyrion Digital approach the challenge? The journey began with SG1 in Singapore, a city that presents various environmental hurdles, from high humidity to limited space. Despite these constraints, SG1 achieved strong operational efficiency by optimizing water consumption and using a green wall running across two facades to lower ambient temperatures. It’s a design choice that contributed to SG1

[1] https://www.edgeprop.sg/property-news/global-data-centre-market-hit-us4-tril-2030-apac-sees-bulk-2024-investments-knight-frank

earning the BCA-IMDA Green Mark for Data Centers Platinum certification, and achieving a stabilized PUE of 1.43 today.

Newer data centers are built on this foundation. KR1 in Seoul, for instance, uses StatePoint Liquid Cooling (SPLC), a technology that combines a liquid-to-air membrane exchanger with a closed-loop system to improve energy efficiency and reduce water consumption. The facility is also designed with AI workloads in mind – selected data halls are already fitted with piping for Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC), while others are engineered for a seamless conversion to DLC as demand grows.

Additional sustainability features include rooftop solar panels, a rainwater management system, and the use of eco-friendly construction materials. By choosing materials with a lower carbon footprint that also support recycling and contain minimal harmful substances, KR1 is designed to reduce its overall environmental impact. For now, the team is also working toward achieving

Korea’s equivalent of the Green Mark certification.

Full speed ahead

Ultimately, data center design is about matching the right technology with the right market and climate. With a relatively new but proven platform, Empyrion isn’t weighed down by legacy systems or outdated facilities that it must retrofit or upgrade. This gives the company the flexibility to move quickly and design infrastructure that supports the latest technologies from the outset.

Another key advantage lies in Empyrion’s parent group and platform, Seraya Partners. Based in Singapore and deeply focused on Asia, Seraya Partners brings a regional perspective and an emphasis on long-term infrastructure growth. They’ve also made significant investments in renewable energy storage, creating opportunities for Empyrion to collaborate with sister companies on sourcing green power, particularly in markets where both are expanding. This alignment helps bridge digital

infrastructure with sustainable energy development, a focal point for real estate and infrastructure investors

Empyrion Digital is quietly redefining what data centers in Asia’s urban cores can look like. While many players chase sprawling hyperscale campuses or stick to smaller retail colocation builds, Empyrion is carving out a niche with its wholesale facilities in central, metropolitan locations serving hyperscalers, enterprises and content delivery networks. It’s a segment that few peers are targeting, at least for the moment.

With its focus on strategic site selection, integrated design, and flexible future upgrades to support the evolving demand of AI workloads, Empyrion is raising the bar for data center development. It’s a sharper, more intentional approach to infrastructure delivery: agile, efficient, and built to scale. And with sustainability woven into every project from day one, Empyrion is setting a new benchmark for what future-ready infrastructure should be.

2025 Events Calendar

SIJORI Week 6 July

SIJORI Golf Cup Batam

SIJORI Week 7 July Batam Interconnect World Forum Batam

SIJORI Week 8 July

Johor Interconnect World Forum

Johor

SIJORI Week 9 & 10 July Open Compute Project –South East Asia Tech Day

Singapore

SIJORI Week 10 July

SIJORI Cloud and Datacenter Convention

Singapore

SIJORI Week 10 July The Future of Network Acquisition: Trends & Strategic Shifts

Singapore

SIJORI Week 12 July

SIJORI Football Singapore 24 July Big Catch up

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Special

Interconnect World Supplement

Inside: What lies beneath Singapore’s plan to become a premier networking hub

Sun, sand, subsea cables: The Middle East’s rise as a global digital crossroads

Discover APAC’s Connectivity Ecosystem with InterconnectWorld Asia 2025

What lies beneath

The hidden mysteries of subsea cables unveiled

Subsea (or submarine) cables are a bit of a mystery to many, buried as they are under the water and silently doing their job of transmitting data traffic and power. But these cables have an outsized role in our everyday lives today. Cable outage means we cannot go online to do our work, shop, bank, email or stream movies. Many institutions and businesses including financial institutions, stock markets, and even medical care would be seriously affected. Financial institutions alone transact an estimated US$ 22 trillion per workday through these cable systems. Without them, there will be a big pause on earth.

Back in 2006, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the southwest coast of Taiwan, damaging eight submarine cables and disrupting internet services in much of the region. It took weeks to repair them, hence exposing the urgent need for a diversity of routes and improvements in the safety and resiliency of the cables to avoid similar disruptions in future.

For such a critical piece of infrastructure, little is known about them. So, we have prepared a primer here to shed some light into this hidden world.

Subsea cables are specially engineered cables laid on or buried beneath the ocean floor. They are designed to transmit data, voice, and increasingly, electrical power over vast distances between continents and islands. They are typically made of fiber-optic cables that convert electrical signals into pulses of light, enabling rapid and high-capacity data transmission. The other type of subsea cables transmit electrical power, often used for connecting offshore renewable energy installations (like wind farms) to onshore grids.

Specialized cable-laying ships

Domestic Submarine Cable of Maldives (DSCoM) invested by telecommunication companies Dhiraagu and Ooredoo lands on the shores of Hulhumale’, Maldives.

Cable Components

Subsea cables are specially engineered cables laid on or buried beneath the ocean floor. They are designed to transmit data, voice, and increasingly, electrical power over vast distances between continents and islands.

deploy the cables along predetermined routes, often burying them under the seabed to protect against fishing gear and anchors. Prior to that, engineers will select routes based on seabed geology, risk factors, and environmental considerations.

The cables require regular monitoring which can detect potential threats while octcasional repairs are necessary due to wear from environmental conditions or accidental damage.

• Thickness varies from about 1cm to 20 cm comprising:

Fiber Strands: These are the corecomponents that transmit data

• Buffering Gel: Protects the fiber strands.

Copper Cables: Provide power for repeaters and branching units.

• Armor Layers: Made from materials like steel and armoured polyethylene to protect against marine life and hazards.

• Outer Membrane: Prevents seawater intrusion.

• Conductors in Power Cables: Conductors are typically made of copper or aluminum. Copper is preferred due to its smaller cross-section and better corrosion resistance, though aluminum is sometimes used for cost reasons.

Cable Landing in Maldives

Challenges and solutions

Subsea cables lie directly on the seabed floor and are vulnerable to natural disasters such as volcanoes and earthquakes, accidents from dropped ship anchors, or intentional cuts. Most cuts are accidental, usually from fishing vessels or cargo ships that drop anchors without realizing what lies beneath them. The International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) estimates that an average of 150–200 faults occur globally each year.

The recent news about a Chinese ship which is able to cut cable lines at depths of up to 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) has the industry a bit worried due to the perceived threat it poses to cables in geopolitically sensitive areas like the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. Taiwan has previously hinted that its subsea cables were cut courtesy of Chinese ships.

Apart from geopolitical risks, cables also face the risk of sabotage, cyber threats and terrorism. Other less dramatic threats include ecological disruptions on seabed during installation and maintenance of cables, cable bottlenecks, and lack of experienced manpower and specialised equipment.

Hence, there is an urgent need to build resiliency and redundancy into the systems especially in the face of exponential growth globally arising from digital transformations and increased cloud adoptions and AI workloads. This issue will become more pronounced in the years ahead as more subsea cables are built.

Joint patrols should also be conducted especially in waters where there are active conflicts and chokepoints, or geostrategic waters. There should be more cooperation between the private sector and governments including enacting or amending international laws to protect the subsea cable network.

Dominance of big tech

Until recently, intercontinental undersea cables were mostly laid by large consortia of national telecommunications companies. For example, 2Africa, currently the longest cable in the world, was laid by a consortium of telcos plus Meta as an anchor customer. This consortium model is due to the high cost of building. But over the past decade, there has been a shift in which subsea cables are increasingly being built by large individual technology companies themselves. For example, Google has deployed several wholly owned private cables, such as the Curie, Dunant, Grace Hopper, and Equiano. Meta has also previously procured the private Transatlantic Anjana cable and is about to start on a 50,000km subsea cable project that connects five continents. The multibillion-dollar project will take years to complete.

Hence, rather than renting capacity from infrastructure providers, the firms are vertically integrating infrastructure with their content services. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft now own or lease around half of all undersea bandwidth worldwide.

Today, the global network is made up of about 450 cable systems spanning more than 1.5 million kms of subsea fiber-optic cables that carry 99 per cent of intercontinental data traffic. These cables enable the flow of terabits of information per second compared to a gigabit of data per second transmitted by satellites, according to Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).

Around 60 new submarine cables are planned up until the year 2027. Meta’s control over the world’s longest cable highlights the growing concentration of digital infrastructure ownership by big tech companies, which strengthens their dominance in the physical infrastructure of the digital world, according to Professor Vili Lehdonvirta, and

This issue will become more pronounced in the years ahead as more subsea cables are built.

Anniki Mikelsaar, both from the Oxford Internet Institute.

Interestingly, approximately 98 percent of the world’s undersea cables are manufactured and installed by four private firms: SubCom (United States), Alcatel Submarine Networks (France), Nippon Electric Company (Japan), and HMN Technologies, (China, formerly known as Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd).

The commercial-driven approach to subsea cables has been a blessing in disguise. With the significant investment and increase in cable construction, the end result is more route diversity, and connectivity to developing countries and underserved regions, thus helping to elevate these regions’ economies. As well, there will be more redundancies and opportunities for vendors and specialists to build the infrastructure. In conclusion, subsea cables are critical assets in today’s world and should be protected using all means possible. They are the hidden underlying infrastructure that will enable digital economies to flourish in an AI-powered future.

Future Trends

• Increased Capacity: Ongoing improvements in fiber-optic technology, such as wavelengthdivision multiplexing (WDM), allow more data to be transmitted simultaneously.

• Resilience and Redundancy: Networks are being designed with greater redundancy to ensure connectivity even if one cable is damaged.

• Power Transmission: Newer projects focus on integrating power transmission to support offshore wind farms and other renewable energy projects, promoting a greener energy future.

• Environmental Monitoring: Advances in remote sensing and robotics are enhancing maintenance and environmental monitoring, ensuring the long-term reliability of these underwater networks.

Singapore’s plan to become a premier networking hub

Digital infrastructure is expanding at breakneck speed as industries rush to support new waves of AI and other data-intensive workloads, all delivered through increasingly cloud-native, distributed architectures. In this hyperconnected landscape, capacity and network reach now grow hand in hand.

Against this backdrop, Singapore faced a unique dilemma. By 2019, data centers already used about 7 percent of the nation’s electricity – nearly all from nonrenewable sources – yet demand kept rising. Limited green-energy options and a commitment to reduce carbon emissions put the city-state at a critical crossroads.

In response, the government imposed a three-year moratorium on new data centers to pause and reassess its long-term strategy. This eventually led to a more selective, controlled growth model. Under this revised approach unveiled in 2022, proposals for new data centers are now evaluated under the Data Centre – Call for Application (DC-CFA) framework,

and assessed on their energy efficiency, sustainability credentials, and economic contribution.

Breaking the capacity ceiling

Meeting future demand requires more than careful sustainability management at home. Singapore’s data center sector, while efficient, faces stark limitations in land and power. In fact, the island already hosts one of the world’s densest data center footprints relative to GDP; it outpaces economies such as China and Japan. Yet density alone doesn’t translate into capacity leadership. Despite hosting major cloud players from both East and West, Singapore still trails larger markets in absolute megawatts.

The size of that gap is clearest in hard numbers. Singapore’s installed capacity stands at about 1,443MW, compared with Sydney’s 1,602MW and Tokyo’s 2,561MW. And with neighboring

Despite hosting major cloud players from both East and West, Singapore still trails larger markets in absolute megawatts.

Malaysia set to add significant new capacity in the next 12 months, Singapore could soon lose further ground in the regional data center race. The numbers are a reminder that while Singapore has made strategic, sustainable choices, it must also grapple with how to support future growth in a constrained environment.

One key element of Singapore’s strategy to maintain its pole position as a data center hub is the expansion of capacity just beyond its borders. This involves developing a cluster of interconnected data centers across Singapore, Johor, and Batam. The approach didn’t emerge overnight; it began taking shape as early as 2021 under the Singapore-Johor-Riau (SIJORI) growth triangle, a regional cooperation framework designed to pair Singapore’s business and digital strengths with the manufacturing and land advantages of its neighbors. The initiative has since evolved into what is now known as SG+.

Today, data center clusters have gained traction in Johor and at the Nongsa Digital Park in Batam. The logic is simple: if new builds within Singapore are difficult, then expand just across the border, and use high-speed, diverse connectivity to treat the wider region as a single, integrated infrastructure. This is where Singapore’s vision to become

Map of subsea cables landing at Singapore from TeleGeography.com

a premier networking hub comes fully into view.

Strengthening the connectivity hub

In 2023, Singapore announced plans to double its submarine cable capacity, with three new landing sites in the next decade. This despite being a leading connectivity hub in Southeast Asia – surpassing regional peers like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan in terms of international cable landings with 26 subsea cables as of 2024.

According to reports, multiple Singapore government agencies will collaborate to secure these future landing sites and work alongside the private sector to bring new subsea cables ashore. The move will further solidify Singapore’s lead and ensure it remains the strategic hub in an expanding regional network.

Several subsea cable projects are already underway. These include Bifrost, MIST (Myanmar/Malaysia India Singapore Transit), the Indonesia Singapore Cable System (INSICA), and the Vietnam-Singapore Cable System (VTS). Together, they will embed Singapore deeper into a fast-growing digital infrastructure web linking the Asia-Pacific region to the rest of the world:

Bifrost, with 12 fiber pairs, lands in Indonesia and the Philippines on its way to the U.S. West Coast. It received regulatory approval from U.S. authorities earlier this year.

MIST will connect Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and India, and is expected to be fully commissioned by June 2025.

INSICA, a 100-kilometer subsea cable between Singapore and Batam, includes 24 fiber pairs delivering up to 20 terabits per second each, and is slated to go live by the end of 2026.

VTS, with eight fiber pairs, will link Singapore directly with Vietnam, landing in Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia. It is expected to be operational by Q2 2027.

Other upcoming cables include the Asia Direct Cable and the Apricot system which are on track to go live within the next three years.

Extending the SG+ fabric

As regional data demand surges and sustainability constraints tighten, Singapore’s strategy to become a premier networking hub is coming into focus. Instead of pushing for unbounded expansion at home, the city-state is laying the groundwork for a hybrid model: maintaining missioncritical workloads locally while routing overflow to fast-developing data center hubs in Batam and Johor.

This setup is made viable by the robust subsea and cross-border

The move will further solidify Singapore’s lead and ensure it remains the strategic hub in an expanding regional network

connectivity that binds these clusters together. With high-speed, redundant links in place, the SG+ model transforms Singapore and its neighbors into one seamlessly connected digital ecosystem. Of course, not everyone believes this is enough. Critics argue that the 300MW cap under the Green Data Centre Roadmap is too conservative and risks undermining Singapore’s position in the AI and digital economy.

There is no doubting the coherence of the vision though. By combining sustainable domestic policy with strategic regional integration, Singapore isn’t just preserving its relevance – it’s reinforcing it. With infrastructure stitched across borders and cables extending its influence, Singapore is positioning itself not just as a data center hub, but as a key enabler of regional infrastructure.

Marina Bay, Singapore

Sun, sand, subsea cables: The Middle East’s rise as a global digital crossroads

Over the last decade, Middle Eastern nations have displayed a passion for digital transformation.

Over the last decade, Middle Eastern nations have displayed a passion for digital transformation. And it isn’t just the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), almost all countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have clear policies and vision documents detailing their roadmap for embracing technology for both governance and attracting foreign businesses and investors.

To understand the evolution of technology and digital connectivity in the Middle East, let us take a closer look at how and why the region gained and retained its prominence in global trade throughout history.

The crossroads of civilizations

The Middle East sits at the intersection of centuries-old trade routes connecting three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. Merchant caravans laden with Chinese silks, Indian spices and Arab perfumes would travel through the Middle East, as would scholars and royal emissaries curious about lands far beyond their own empires. Gradually, as maritime travel developed, sailors shared stories in the sarais, even as philosophers and poets shared their take on evolving social anthropology. The Middle East has thus always been a melting pot of culture and knowledge, with a rich and proud history of enabling global trade and finance.

The first major transformation of the Middle East took place with

the discovery of oil; it brought unprecedented wealth to the region, leading to modernization and technological advancements aimed at attracting global attention. Skyscrapers sprang from the desert, and desalination plants were developed to quench the region’s thirst.

Middle Eastern oil kept the world’s engine running for decades. But gradually, with growing consciousness surrounding sustainability, the oildependent economies of the region began to invest greater thought into building a strong non-oil economy. This led to investments in tourism, entertainment, and most importantly… technology. The real estate development wasn’t limited to fancy hotels, expensive shopping centers and exclusive residential enclaves; entire business districts were developed to attract and retain international businesses and investors. One could argue that tech-savvy Middle Eastern cities like Dubai and Doha paved the way for some of the first “smart” cities in the world.

Today, these cities, along with Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Muscat, have become business and technology hubs. The Middle East is also displaying a voracious appetite for emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT), using them extensively in manufacturing, automation, banking, real estate, financial services, autonomous vehicles, healthcare, online content and entertainment, and much more.

All of this has led to the evolution

“For commodity or wholesale situations, robust may simply mean multiple connectivity providers. However, the need for real-time connectivity has never been greater, whether for mission-critical enterprise applications, or AI inferencing”

and rapid growth of the region’s cloud and data center industry, and some of the largest global players are now investing billions of dollars into building new digital infrastructure to cater to the ever-increasing demand. Just this year, data center and AI investment commitments worth over US$ 15 billion were made in the span of just one day at LEAP, a Saudi Arabian government backed international technology conference that took place in Riyadh.

The beating heart of an interconnected world

Data centers cannot exist in isolation; they need robust and reliable connectivity infrastructure comprising telecommunications networks, fiber broadband, internet exchanges, transit zones, subsea and terrestrial cables.

Milan Radia, Founder and CEO, Connected Compute

INTERCONNECT WORLD

“For commodity or wholesale situations, robust may simply mean multiple connectivity providers. However, the need for real-time connectivity has never been greater, whether for mission-critical enterprise applications, or AI inferencing,” says Milan Radia, Founder and CEO, Connected Compute, a data center company headquartered in the UAE with its eye on Africa. Radia understands how crucial it is to develop connectivity infrastructure to maintain the interconnected nature of global business, finance, and technology.

“Speed of data transmission is measured in milliseconds; this is what we call latency,” Ivo Ivanov, CEO & Chair of the Board, DE-CIX Group AG, explained in the W.Media Podcast earlier this year. He then went on to put this speed of data transmission into perspective, asking, “Do you know how many milliseconds a blink of an eye takes?” According to him it takes 100 milliseconds. Now compare this to some other everyday and businessrelated technological tasks. “Standard current applications like video-ondemand, a Teams call or Google call… they require not slower than 50-60 milliseconds. If we are talking about real-time high definition gaming, that’s less than 20 milliseconds,” he says before delving into the latency requirements of business applications. “If we take autonomous driving where every single millisecond counts, then we are talking about single digits; it has to be better than 10 milliseconds.”

DE-CIX is at the forefront of some of the most recent connectivity infrastructure investments in the region. It has partnered with Ooredoo, a renowned Qatar-based telecommunications operator, to announce Doha IX, which will be Qatar’s first standalone commercial IX. Meanwhile, DE-CIX India has formed a strategic partnership with e&, a prominent middle east-based global technology group to establish an Internet corridor between the UAE and India. Together, they aim to provide seamless, high-speed Internet services across the Middle East and India.

In fact, e& Carrier & Wholesale, which is part of the wider e& technology group, recently announced the launch

of a new data center on its Fujairah SmartHub Campus. This 1.5 MW data center will be its fourth Tier III facility, and will take the entire campus’ total capacity to 4 MW. Established in 2011, the SmartHub campus in Fujairah has become a carrier-neutral digital ecosystem, serving multiple Tier 1 carriers, hyperscalers, content delivery networks (CDNs), Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

After IXPs, it is time to take a deep dive into the subsea cable infrastructure in the Middle East. The map shows one of the most cabledense regions on the planet.

Some of the most prominent international subsea cables in this region include 2Africa, AsiaAfrica-Europe (AAE-1), Gulf Bridge International Cable System, Europe India Gateway, FALCON, Fiber in Gulf (FIG), Fiber Optic Gulf (FOG), IMEWE, Peace Cable, South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE) cables 4,5, and 6 and The East Africa Marine System (TEAMS).

Then there are terrestrial cables, the most prominent of which is the Middle East-Europe terrestrial system (MEETS), a 1,400km terrestrial cable network which connects the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Eurasia. Another major system is the 3,500 km-long

Silk Route Transit cable that passes through Iraq, and provides the shortest alternative terrestrial route to connect Europe to Asia, bypassing the “Red Sea Bottleneck”, the vulnerable checkpoint at the intersection of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal. Then there is Vodafone’s East West Turkey Connect Fiber Cable System (EWTC), a terrestrial fiber network across Turkey, enabling connectivity between the Eastern and Western borders.

“The density of subsea cables continues to grow. The 2Africa Pearls extension led by STC is connecting the GCC countries with other parts of the globe. These are highly positive developments for the region,” observes Radia, adding, “Terrestrial cable investment is set to grow substantially as the hyperscale content platforms seek to create greater resilience and redundancy in the face of a series of high-profile subsea cable outages over the past 18 months.”

Laying the foundations for a 10G future

Meanwhile, governments across the Middle East recognize the importance of building the necessary infrastructure to support the region’s burgeoning demand for digital connectivity. They have a vision and plans such as Saudi Arabia’s 10Gbps Society which is characterised as one that has at

Middle East subsea cable map (Image courtesy: submarinecablemap.com)

“We have seen huge investments in connectivity in the Middle East in terms of the number of subsea cables and new terrestrial routes being created to connect the Middle East to the world.”

its foundation an advanced network infrastructure with 10 gigabits per second peak. Similarly, UAE dreams of becoming a 10G nation. 10G is a term used by cable internet access providers to refer to broadband networks with a maximum potential download rate of 10 gigabits per second. Bahrain too has set ambitious goals under its 6th National Telecommunications Plan (NTP6).

“We have seen huge investments in connectivity in the Middle East in terms of the number of subsea cables and new terrestrial routes being created to connect the Middle East to the world,” says Kamel Al Tawil, Managing Director, MENA, Equinix. Speaking in the W.Media Deep Dive, W.Media’s exclusive video podcast series covering the digital infrastructure and connectivity ecosystem in South Asia and the Middle East, he further explained the impact of improved connectivity, saying, “Historically content would go through main European hubs before coming into the region. This is what we call the tromboning effect. Now we see more and more content being localised.” However, he also recommends, “We need to work more on the regulations between different countries, because AI workloads are location agnostic.”

Radia also points to connectivity blind spots and advocates for swift reforms, saying, “There is plenty of scope for further development in the Middle East. Several countries have

relatively immature connectivity environments, whether considered in terms of the number of network operators, regulation, availability of dark fibre, IXPs, and connectivity pricing.” He predicts, “Over the next few years, I anticipate extensive investment and development, partly driven by the requirements of the cloud and content platforms.”

To complement terrestrial and subsea infrastructure, efforts are underway to explore new frontiers such as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks with the aim to further enhance regional and global data transmission capabilities.

From ancient trade routes to cutting-edge digital corridors, the Middle East is blending legacy with ambition. Through bold investments in connectivity, the region is shaping a resilient, tech-powered future - one where innovation flows freely and possibilities stretch far beyond its shores.

MEETS Terrestrial Cable Map | (Image courtesy Vodafone)
Kamel Al Tawil, Managing Director, MENA, Equinix

Discover APAC’s Connectivity Ecosystem with InterconnectWorld Asia 2025

The Asia Pacific (APAC) region is one of the largest contributors to global data traffic, driven by increasing internet usage, cloud services, streaming and digital applications. The growth of 5G, and adoption of AI are also responsible for the skyrocketing data consumption.

As a result of this, APAC has become a thriving nerve center of subsea cables that enable quick and smooth data transfer. These cables connect the countries in this region to not only each other, but also stretching out across the oceans, as if to shake hands with their brothers and sisters in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.

Japan alone has over 20 international cable landing stations. Some of the major subsea cables in the

Images from W.Media’s Interconnect World Forum in Johor, Malaysia and Batam, Indonesia.

region include Asia Direct Cable, Asia Pacific Gateway, FLAG - Europe Asia (FEA), Guam-Okinawa-Kyushu-Incheon (GOKI), Japan-Guam-Australia North, Korea-Japan Cable Network, Tata TGN Pacific and Trans Pacific Express (TPE) Cable System. This has made Japan a global subsea cable connectivity hub.

But there’s more to this ecosystem than just subsea cables; global connectivity infrastructure also includes terrestrial cables that enable the smooth flow of data. Internet exchanges and telecommunications networks also play a major role. Many such IXPs set up by major regional and global players such as BBIX, Equinix, Japan Network Access Point (JPNAP), Japan Internet Exchange (JPIX), and others are present across Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Okinawa.

W.Media has been witness to the evolution of the connectivity ecosystem in East Asia, and has been hosting Interconnect World Forum

Japan Subsea Cable Map | Image courtesy: submarinecablemap.com)

in different connectivity hubs. Here are some pictures from our 2024 Interconnect World events in Johor and Batam.

We are now bringing together the movers and shakers from this industry at InterconnectWorld Asia that will take place at The Hilton, Tokyo on June 5, 2025. Here, these industry veterans and experts will share their expertise and insights of a variety of subjects such as subsea cable infrastructure and technology, capacity and bandwidth, geopolitical and geographical challenges, legal and regulatory framework, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), peering agreements and policies, content delivery and optimisation, and much more.

We are now bringing together the movers and shakers from this industry at InterconnectWorld Asia that will take place at The Hilton, Tokyo on June 5, 2025.

“Asia Interconnect World Forum 2025 marks a pivotal step in expanding the conversation around digital infrastructure in Asia. By honing in on region-specific challenges and opportunities, we’re creating a space where decision-makers, disruptors, and builders can come together to shape what’s next,” says Garris Lo, NEA Commercial Director, W.Media.

Several exciting keynote sessions and panel discussions are planned at InterconnectWorld Asia. Some topics of discussion include data sovereignty and cross-border regulations, AI-driven SDN and intent based interconnectivity, internet trends in Japan, among others.

“This is more than a conference— it’s a specialist forum crafted for Japan’s unique digital ecosystem, diving deep into infrastructure, connectivity, and subsea, internet, AI strategies that will define the next wave of innovation,” says Kenji Lee, NEA Community Specialist, W.Media.

The day will end with a sundowner party and networking drinks. To view the full agenda for InterconnectWorld Asia, please visit https://interconnectworld.com/events/ interconnect-world-2025-asia/

InterconnectWorld Asia is part of the wider InterconnectWorld 2025 series where W.Media will bring together industry leaders in different parts of the world to exchange insights, share best practices, and collaborate on advancements in the field. This year, we are coming to Batam, Chennai, Dubai, Johor and Melbourne.

Several exciting keynote sessions and panel discussions are planned at InterconnectWorld Asia.

InterconnectWorld Asia will be followed by the Japan Cloud & Datacenter Convention (JPCDC) that will be held at the same venue the following day. JPCDC 2025 will unite industry leaders, government officials, and tech experts to shape the future of the nation’s cloud and data center sector, exploring AI, data sovereignty, and renewable energy innovations for actionable insights. It offers an

unparalleled platform with over 50 expert speakers, engaging panel discussions, and keynote presentations addressing critical challenges and opportunities in the industry. Attendees will have the chance to network with over 1,000 professionals and explore innovations showcased by nearly two dozen exhibitors and sponsors.

Images from W.Media’s Interconnect World Forum in Johor, Malaysia and Batam, Indonesia.

Can it take the heat? Reassessing timber’s role in data centers

Using timber to build data centers is nothing new, but will it ever catch on?

W. Media chats with James Rix, JLL’s Head of Data Centers and Industrial, Malaysia & Indonesia for his opinion.

With rising pressure to decarbonize construction and reduce embodied carbon in data centers, it’s time to revisit mass timber as a possible replacement for concrete and steel which are traditionally used in building data centers. Timber has stood the test of time – but can it be used safely and cheaply to build data centers?

“It can be done,” declares James Rix, JLL’s Head of Data Centers and Industrial, Malaysia & Indonesia. “Not only is it safer, cheaper and more sustainable than steel and concrete, it is also faster to install.”

In his 2023 paper, James has written

at length, with the collaboration of a builder who has successfully used wood to build DCs, about exploring timber to build data centers. “If, for a similar cost, reduced construction noise, reduced waste and time and with a reduced carbon footprint of up to 50%, why would we not use a timber product,” he asked.

He then mentioned use cases that show that even with a reduced workforce, the pace of glulam erection can often outstrip that of the groundworks, thus saving costs.

Typically, the wood of choice is softwood like spruce, pine or larch which is engineered into glulam timber beams and cross laminated timber (CLT) panels. Glulam is ‘glue-laminated’ and together with CLT, is the preferred timber for use in data centers. Timber

In his 2023 paper, James has written at length, with the collaboration of a builder who has successfully used wood to build DCs, about exploring timber to build data centers.

can bend similar to concrete; being a natural product, it has inbuilt flexibility.

Glulam beams also have an excellent weight to strength ratio.

“Timber is lighter than concrete and steel, thus reducing the depth of foundation or the number of piles that are needed to sink,” explains James, noting that steel and concrete have their place nonetheless, for example, in supporting heavy loads like generators.

Mass timber is now easily accessible in the global market – this engineered softwood either has to be imported from Europe or probably China. It’s too expensive to use hardwood, which is more often than not used for decorative purposes, according to James.

In terms of logistics cost to transport timber to the site of the data center, the overall cost-savings from using wood compared to steel and concrete might offset the higher transportation costs but further studies are needed, James acknowledged.

Timber can fulfil all the requirements of a data center in terms of span and ceiling height. However, the “right materials need to be considered in the right place, on a caseby-case basis. It may be that a hybrid

Vertiv’s TimberMod modular data center solution

steel-timber structure is appropriate to reduce a disproportionate amount of material, either steel or timber,” he explained.

In terms of sustainability, James elaborated that the harvesting and replanting of trees is managed in a very responsible and sustainable way especially in Nordic countries to ensure there is diversity, supply, and good conditions for workers. This is in compliance with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), certification bodies for the forestry industry, on top of country regulations. Globally, over one billion acres of forest is certified, with 16% of this having both PEFC and FSC certification. Using wood reduces the carbon footprint by up to 40% in comparison to concrete. Cement alone is responsible for 7-8% of global carbon emissions.

While branches of trees cannot be used for glulam, they could be used as biomass to produce electricity. Therefore, timber is infinitely reusable and contributes to a circular economy,

In terms of logistics cost to transport timber to the site of the data center, the overall cost-savings from using wood compared to steel and concrete might offset the higher transportation costs but further studies are needed, James acknowledged.

James said.

Timber used internally does not degrade while degradation seen in external timber can become an architectural feature and can even look attractive compared to traditional features of a data center, said James, who cited the example of the Boden data center in Sweden. Moreover, wood’s natural aesthetics may enhance community acceptance and blend in with its surroundings.

Tough ‘cookies’

Many critics have pointed out the higher

risk of fire when using wood but James countered this by saying that glulam and CLT panels char at the rate of 1mm per 7 minutes of burn whilst retaining its core strength unlike steel which becomes malleable when heated up.

When it comes to earthquakes, both CLT and glulam hold up very well. They are a ductile material that will flex and absorb energy from vibrations, acting as a damper. “Concrete, on the other

James Rix

done by simply screwing fixing to the beams.

When it comes to earthquakes, both CLT and glulam hold up very well.

hand, is a brittle material which will crack and fail, without the addition of other technologies to mitigate the risk.”

James cited the example of a sevenstory structure in Italy, the SOFIE project undertaken by the Trees and Timber Institute of Italy, that was shown to be able to withstand significant sustained vibration, up to the Kobe earthquake of 1995 (magnitude of 7.4 on Richter Scale) without any significant damage. Even live blasts tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Defence resulted in minimal permanent damage.

The CLT panels and glulam beams are typically made in factories – these prefabricated products are then shipped to the site of the DC. The prefabricated nature of glulam and CLT panels, means the finishes, ceiling structures, façade and flooring can be installed immediately without the curing time required for a concrete structure. Secondary fixings are easily

Google has gone ahead to use glulam and CLT in their new headquarters in King’s Cross, London, a hybrid structure consisting of steel and timber. Similarly, Microsoft’s experimental hybrid wooden DCs in northern Virginia, US, have reportedly gone ahead but it’s still too early to tell whether they are workable enough for widespread adoption.

CLT has been used in several data center projects in Europe, particularly at EcoDataCenter in Sweden, which boasts of having built the first wooden data center in the world. Vertiv also has modular units made from wood.

In conclusion, while mass timber is a

The prefabricated nature of glulam and CLT panels, means the finishes, ceiling structures, façade and flooring can be installed immediately without the curing time required for a concrete structure.

compelling story towards a sustainable future for data centers, its viability has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. This is because many other factors like location, access to power, water and raw materials, technological investments, as well as government policies have to be considered as well. These will all influence the final cost, hence the decision whether to throw out cement and steel in favour of wood.

Glulam’s response to fire (Source: James Rix)

Can Southeast Asia’s data centers thrive in a global trade storm?

Experts are divided on whether Southeast Asia will be the victor or victim following US-China trade war 2.0

The economic fallout from US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs will be enormous on all countries including the US itself.

In a recent televised interview with Democracy Now!, an independent global news network, Nancy Qian, professor of economics at Northwestern University and founding director of the China Econ Lab noted that contracts between Chinese suppliers and American importers are already being cancelled.

“Business relationships that took decades to build are now being paused, because these tariffs are so high that no one can be profitable, can stay in business and continue to import. I think the cost for both economies is going to be colossal. We’ll see a little bit of it in the short run. And if this continues, we’re just going to see it exponentiate over time,” said Qian.

With the 90-day tariff pause against all countries except China, expect a surge of negotiations that will leave smaller countries like Laos falling further behind in the queue. Companies will be sourcing for alternative supply chains, while manufacturers outside China will be filling the gaps from China.

Less impact on data centers in Asia

According to James Rix, JLL’s Head of Data Centres and Industrial

Malaysia & Indonesia, the imposition of tariffs could affect up to 80% of the materials being used in US data centres. “However, this could see a resurgence of the use of Southeast Asia’s manufactured components for facilities in Southeast Asia. US-based organizations may also see more use of their manufacturing bases here in ASEAN.”

Rix added: “I do not foresee a slowing down in the market here, rather it would continue to grow, although it may prove more challenging to raise money from the US market.”

Vivan Wong, Senior Analyst at DC Byte, feels that the 90-day reprieve presents an opportunity for Southeast Asian countries— many of which rely on exports to the U.S.— to accelerate contingency planning.

“In the Joint Statement of the ASEAN Economic Ministers released yesterday, ASEAN highlighted its intention to strengthen intra-regional cooperation amid the ongoing global trade uncertainty. Efforts such as upgrading the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement and advancing the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework reflect a broader push toward economic integration. This window allows ASEAN to mitigate the potential impacts on its economies and populations as much as possible, though effects of the tariff cannot be entirely eliminated,” she said.

Examples of imports from China that can’t be easily replaced are

According to James Rix, JLL’s Head of Data Centres and Industrial Malaysia, the imposition of tariffs could affect up to 80% of the materials being used in US data centres.

rare earth minerals like gallium and germanium which are essential for fibre optics, semiconductors and 5G antennas. These can’t be easily sourced from other countries although Malaysia and India could emerge as alternative suppliers, but scaling production could take years, an Indian telecommunications executive reportedly said, adding that they are working with Australian and African miners to diversify their supply chains. He agreed that there would certainly be a price surge in rare earths.

The IMF meanwhile warned of a 0.5% GDP contraction in emerging markets due to trade disruptions. “Emerging markets must brace for prolonged instability,” said Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director.

‘Long trade war’

The World Trade Organization had said on Wednesday that the escalating tariff war between America and China could cut trade in goods between the two countries by a whopping 80%. Trade between China and the U.S. accounts for 3% of global trade.

“Prepare for a deep and long trade

war especially between the US and China,” is the unanimous experts’ opinion after the US raised tariffs up to 125% on goods from China further escalating the simmering tensions between the two economic superpowers. Responses to the tariff hike have been swift – Chinese companies that sell products on Amazon are preparing to increase prices for the United States or quit that market, said sellers and the head of China’s largest e-commerce association, as reported by Reuters.

Tech giant Apple had reportedly chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tons of iPhones, or as many as 1.5 million, to the United States from India. The US smartphone company had stepped up production in India in an attempt to navigate around Trump’s tariffs against China where currently the vast majority of iPhones are made.

This trade war is accelerating regionalisation and reshaping global

supply chains, hence manufacturers must diversify their supply chains beyond China and build up their local manufacturing capability in order to weather this tariff tsunami, said an Indonesian former trade official.

Meanwhile, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor, reportedly said the chaos unleashed on the world by Trump would have lasting damage. “Bringing back manufacturing to the US is not realistic as many US companies say they don’t have the logistics nor the supply chains. And many modern manufacturing now use robotics so it’s not going to increase jobs in America even if this is done,” he told TV network Democracy Now! recently.

Prices of goods around the world are expected to soar similar to the post-pandemic period when global supply chains were disrupted. At the same time, there are also worries

The World Trade Organization had said on Wednesday that the escalating tariff war between America and China could cut trade in goods between the two countries by a whopping 80%. Trade between China and the U.S. accounts for 3% of global trade.

that China might dump its US-bound goods in other countries. There are anti-dumping legislations in some of the targeted countries however that could mitigate this possibility.

Trump had announced a 90-day reprieve hours after the new tariffs went into effect on April 9.

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Chennai: The beating heart of South Asia’s interconnected digital ecosystem

This May, W.Media is returning to Chennai with the fourth edition of Chennai Cloud and Datacenter Convention and Awards. Simultaneously, we will also be hosting the maiden edition of Chennai Interconnect World,

What makes Chennai special?

Chennai is the capital city of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and is one of India’s top three data center markets alongside Mumbai and Bengaluru.

According to Mordor Intelligence, the Chennai data center market size is estimated at 202.43MW in 2025, and is expected to reach 551.15MW by 2030, at a Compounded Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.18 percent during the forecast period (2025-2030).

Today Chennai is home to data centers by AdaniConnex, CapitaLand, Colt DCS, CtrlS Datacenters, Digital

a technology conference focused on India’s connectivity ecosystem.

The day-long event will be held at ITC Chola on May 22, and is expected to bring together over 1,500 delegates, including C-level executives, digital infrastructure professionals including

Connexion, NTT, Nxtra by Airtel, Sify, STT GDC, and many others such as Yotta have projects in the pipeline. Ambattur and Siruseri have emerged as locations of choice for data centers in Chennai.

“Chennai offers a compelling combination of submarine cable landing stations, low-latency connectivity, a pro-investment policy environment, and growing enterprise and cloud demand. These factors, alongside availability of skilled talent and stable power infrastructure, make it a strategic location for our AI-ready hyperscale designed Data Centre facility,” says Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director & Head, Data Centre, India, CapitaLand Investment. “It complements CapitaLand’s long-term vision of building sustainable digital infrastructure in high-growth markets.”

“Over the past few years, Chennai has emerged as a strategic digital gateway for India and the broader APAC region,” says Vipul Kumar, Vice President, Edge and Network, CtrlS

architects, engineers and consultants (AECs), key buyers, decision makers, data center owners and operators, representatives of government agencies, telecom majors, submarine networks and services.

Datacenters. “With a surge in subsea cable landings, robust terrestrial fiber builds, and increasing Hyperscale and edge node deployments, the city’s connectivity ecosystem has matured significantly. The convergence of hyperscalers, data center operators, Content Networks and telcos has made Chennai a critical hub for low-latency, high-capacity infrastructure.”

Subsea cable connectivity drawing data centers to Chennai

One of the reasons why Chennai is such a sought after data center market is that it is well connec ted to the global subsea cable network. Mordor Intelligence acknowledges this saying, “Chennai is crucial to the world’s undersea cable system. It acts as an alternate data exchange hub for the Asia Pacific thanks to its inherent

advantages, including a sizable land supply that may be turned into cuttingedge data center facilities.” It further says, “Chennai eventually proves to be preferable because it moves more quickly than other options in this area due to its proximity.”

Chennai already has five cable landing stations and three more have been planned for the near future. Recently, Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest telecommunications service providers, landed the Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe-6 (SEAME-WE 6 or SMW6) in Chennai. The 21,700 Rkm submarine cable system connects India to Singapore and France (Marseille) crossing Egypt through terrestrial cables.

Moreover, recently, NTT DATA, a global digital business and technology services provider, announced the commissioning of its Malaysia, India, Singapore Transit (MIST) submarine cable system by June 2025. MIST is an 8,100-kilometer cable that can carry over 200 terabits per second (Tbps). It is one of the largest cables in Asia, and will connect Malaysia, India, Singapore and Thailand. MIST was connected to NTT DATA’s Mumbai landing station in February 2023 and its Chennai landing station in May 2023.

Government support to Data Center industry

Tamil Nadu has a clear data center policy, which also helps attract data centers to Chennai. Tamil Nadu hopes to become a trillion-dollar economy by 2030, and the state government

sees the cloud and data center industry playing an important role in achieving this goal.In its Tamil Nadu Vision 1 Trillion document, the state government has stated, “Within IT, Tamil Nadu can aim to attain leadership in SaaS, while becoming the preferred choice for industry players looking at IT expansion into tier 1/2 cities, and establishing itself as a leading data center hub in India.”

What to expect at Chennai CDC and Interconnect World 2025

The day long Cloud & Datacenter Convention will include several powerpacked panel discussions, where the best and brightest minds in the industry will share their ideas on important subjects such as the impact of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) on the Cloud and Data Center industry, how to best use Edge Computing, challenges in switching to renewableenergy sources, and manyother pertinent topics.

“This is our fourth edition of the Cloud & Datacenter Convention. But that’s not all. This year we are also bringing Interconnect World to Chennai to showcase the region’s prominent place in the global connectivity landscape,” says Naveen Lawrence, Managing Director - South Asia & Middle East, W.Media. “Also, don’t miss CenterStage, our special break out session that is held in the Expo area, where industry leaders brainstorm about out-of-the-box solutions in a more informal and intimate chat

among peers.”

At Interconnect World there will be insightful presentations and knowledge-sharing sessions by industry leaders on a wide variety of subjects such as the impact of 5G on India’s telecom ecosystem, the satellite services market, subsea cables, Tamil Nadu’s growing connectivity infrastructure, and new innovations.

The Convention will also include a modest technology expo that will showcase the latest innovations and futuristic technologies and advancements in the cloud and data center industry. Don’t forget to join us at CenterStage Chennai, where W.Media’s Editor-in-Chief Deborah Grey will bring together industry experts for a more intimate chat on what lies at the heart of their quest for excellence in digital transformation.

REGISTER NOW!

So, what are you waiting for?

Come, join us at ITC Chola on May 22, 2025, for the Chennai Cloud & Datacenter Convention and Awards

If you haven’t booked your passes yet, hurry!

Register at: https://clouddatacenter. events/events/chennai-cloud-datacenterconvention-2025/

For sponsorship, exhibition and further involvement opportunities, get in touch at india@w.media

When innovation meets the heat

Expect more cooling innovations to keep up with a digital world defined by technological leaps.

Liquid cooling has become a buzzword in the data center industry of late. Not surprisingly as this is the megatrend that’s becoming the de facto standard in all new data centers. Hyperscalers are already adopting it for their AI workloads, and it’s a matter of time before the broader industry follows suit. Driven by unrelenting demand for more and higher-performance computing and growing pressures to meet sustainability standards, the sector is being pushed to innovate harder and operate more efficiently than ever before.

Liquid cooling and its subsequent advancements stand at the intersection of innovation and sustainability; it solves the twin challenges of overheating of ever more powerful servers and the environmental mandate of conserving potable water. Microsoft’s decision

to implement zero-water cooling technology in all its new data centers beginning August 2024, thus conserving water, is an example of an innovative solution while AirTrunk’s recent joint venture with the state and federal authorities in Malaysia to use treated wastewater to cool their data centers in Johor is another cool example.

Many more innovative solutions are in the works and we will likely hear of more cutting-edge technologies in the weeks and months ahead.

Some have described liquid cooling as the beginning of a revolutionary shift in thermal management, and rightly so. The advancements so far: in two-phase cooling, immersion systems, and smart monitoring – are pushing boundaries and transforming our approach to heat dissipation. Liquid is the medium of the future – for now. But who knows, at the rate the industry is evolving, I dare say liquid might even be supplanted by another medium.

But that’s just me speculating in an industry that defies speculations –suffice to say, as long as AI workloads keep increasing at an exponential rate, the rate of innovation will also tend to keep up. Challenges still remain as with any technological transition. But these represent more of an opportunity than a big road block.

The liquid cooling market is projected to triple to US$10.61 billion by 2028. In the meantime, there is ample room to refine cooling technologies to keep up with the technological leaps that define the digital world.

At the end of the day, all we want is digital infrastructure that’s not just efficient, resilient, and sustainable, but futureproof. We’re laying the foundation for a smarter, greener and more connected world, powered by steady innovation. Judging by the current pace of progress, we’re well on our way. Tariffs notwithstanding.

W.Media is a Technology Publisher & Community Hub.

We serve the cloud/IT, data centers and network infrastructure professionals through media solutions and business events.

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