As Southeast Asia’s leading carrier-neutral data centre services provider, AIMS is pretty much a household name in the data centre industry in the region. While the region has witnessed increasing demand for data centres to cope with the growing number of workloads and services, AIMS continues to be a major player in ensuring the demand is met, including expanding its services to Thailand.

With three data centres in Malaysia, Chiew Kok Hin, the CEO of AIMS Group remains optimistic that the data centre market in the region will only continue to get more competitive in the future. He believes that the added competition, be it from the local or international players in the industry will only see data centres becoming better in offering their services.

“Competition in the industry means there is business demand. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. It shows the industry is growing and everyone is investing in the data centre space. AIMS has been around for a long time and we have managed to build the ecosystem over time. So, while there is competition, we are not that worried about it because we know which fields are our strengths and have a competitive advantage. Yes, there is competition, but it also means the investment is growing in the industry”, said Chiew.

At the same time, Chiew also felt that Malaysia is well equipped to support any customer, especially after the Malaysian Transport Minister recently released a statement saying tech giants Facebook and Google preferred to invest in Singapore and Indonesia for their data centres as Malaysia still lacks the infrastructure.

“The government has done a fair bit of things since the 90s. Today we have so many data centres. If one has not been to Cyberjaya, I suggest they drive over and take a look. We have humongous data centres which are best of class and comparable to the ones we have in Singapore and in the US. In terms of data centre infrastructure, we have it. Our data centres have been around for some time with a solid infrastructure. Maybe there are rooms for improvement, but this is definitely not a reason why the two tech giants are bypassing us”, added Chiew.

Chiew also believed that apart from the cabotage issue keeping tech investors at bay, the ease of access to power, water and other resources as well as policies in renewable energy by the government plays an important part in bringing in more foreign tech investments. He adds that the private sector needs to ensure robust connectivity and the availability of human capital in skills and talents so that more international tech players and investors will consider Malaysia.

Having said that, Chiew also pointed out that sustainable use of energy and low carbon footprint as important factors for businesses today. Today, companies that are known for their green initiatives, use of renewable energy and low carbon footprints attract better interests globally.

“We have been at the forefront for using technology that has a low carbon footprint such as dynamic UPS and other sustainable cooling energy for the data centre. Initiatives like this reduce our power usage. We are now exploring solar power and co-generation power. But we must understand that Malaysia is a tropical country. So, there are certain things we cannot do. For example, free cooling as they do in Finland”, explained Chiew.

Moving forward, AIMS projects more traction in the year ahead, especially with the recently announced MyDigital initiative, growth in digital transformation and hyperscalers coming into Malaysia as well.  This includes the launch of a new facility in Cyberjaya to take on the hyperscalers.

“The demand is growing. We are continuously expanding our presence regionally. We have data centres in Malaysia and one in Bangkok. We are partnering with our partners to have one in Vietnam and we are connecting all these data centres together. Anyone who wants to be part of this ecosystem can be part of it and reap the benefits of the AIMS ecosystem”, concluded Chiew.