KUALA LUMPUR: NEXTDC Limited, Australia’s leading data centre player has entered the Malaysian data centre scene with its first data centre development in Malaysia which will be known as KL1 in Petaling Jaya.
Its set to start operations in 2025 and will be the first Uptime Institute (UI) Tier IV certified data centre in Peninsular Malaysia.
During the launch today, NEXTDC’s CEO Craig Scroggie said that the company was committed to invest approximately RM3 billion in Malaysia over the span of five to 10 years and will also commit to digital skilling and educational initiatives to help empower Malaysia’s ICT and digital workforce in enhancing Malaysia’s competitive edge in Asia.
The KL1 facility is designed to scale rapidly and will grow approximately 65MW of IT critical power coupled with direct cloud interconnectivity and will open its doors to customers in 2025.
KL1 represents NEXTDC launching pad into Asia which includes some of the largest and most rapidly growing data centre markets globally. NEXTDC views Malaysia as an optimal market for its maiden foray into Asia with its rapidly growing demand for quality data centre solutions, increasingly sophisticated digital economy, high data consumption per capita and increasing adoption of cloud-based technologies.
NEXTDC plans to market its services in KL through its existing ecosystem of more than 750 technology partners which include global hyperscale customers with a number of them who plan to start operations in Malaysia as well as existing, new enterprise and government customers.
In the pipeline, the company will use Malaysia as its regional hub for its Asia expansion and it will also develop a new regional operations centre for multidisciplinary staff to support growth across the Asian region.
During the launch, International Trade and Industry (Miti) Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said, “We welcome NEXTDC’s decision in selecting Malaysia as its new investment destination beyond the Oceania region. This reflects confidence in our investment and business ecosystem, reaffirming Malaysia’s growing reputation as a premier data centre investment destination and our position as preferred digital hub in Southeast Asia. As a supportive component of a digital economy, NEXTDC’s strategic initiative is also well aligned with our New Investment Policy, which aspires to create a more sustainable, balanced and inclusive socio-economic growth moving forward. Miti and its agency Mida are committed to facilitating the success of NEXTDC’s strategic initiative in Malaysia, particularly helping us create higher paying jobs and a more vibrant domestic SME supply chain.”
Meanwhile, Selangor’s Mentri Besar Datuk Amirudin Shari said, “The state government of Selangor is fully committed to support high impact investment like NEXTDC. In Selangor, we are committed to continuously streamline businesses processes to improve the ease of doing business. When businesses flourish, workers and their families flourish. This is the key to improve the quality of lives of Selangorians and we are confident of working with the business community to realise this.”
In the same vein, NEXTDC’s Scroggie said, “The development of KL1 data centre and the establishment of our new regional operations centre are exciting frontiers of NEXTDC in Asia, and we are delighted to be making these investments in the Malaysian digital economy. The new KL1 facility will feature world leading sustainability benchmarks and critical infrastructure standards. The special occasion marks the initiation of NEXTDC’s regional expansion throughout Asia, and we are excited about the contribution these strategic investments will make to shaping the future of digital infrastructure and creating a wealth of technology job opportunities in Malaysia and beyond.”
