Epsilon has established a virtual Point of Presence (PoP) in Singapore for HostSG, the country’s largest web hosting company.

In addition to the virtual PoP Epsilon is providing HostSG with colocation facilities in Singapore and connectivity between the Equinix and NTP data centers in the country.

The initiative is part of HostSG’s push to provide smaller Asian businesses with a global platform, according to HostSG CEO Kevin Foong, and the deal with Epsilon means that the company can be a one-stop for both managed hosting and connectivity.

The virtual PoP gives the company’s 35,000 customers access to over 500 network providers.

“Increasingly SMEs in Asia are going global and they need partners like HostSG to support them with both local managed hosting as well as global connectivity,” Foong said.

“In Singapore and across Asia, we see international presence as well as reliable connectivity as a key differentiator for hosting companies and this is why our work with Epsilon has been so important to our business.”

Jerzy Szlosarek, COO at Epsilon, said the company is providing a turnkey package for HostSG - “all the infrastructure, data center, backhaul, metro access, international connectivity”.

He said about 20% of the company’s revenues now come from its data center activity.

“Over the last six months we’ve really seen greater demand for multiple services, people are looking for a turnkey solution, not for the component parts,” Szlosarek said.

Epsilon calls itself an “enabler of connectivity services to communications service providers”, and operates what it claims is the world’s largest global network exchange, with over 500 network operators pre-connected and ready for their networks to be used by service providers.

It recently established a virtual PoP in Singapore for pan-Asian mobile operator Axiata (formerly Telekom Malaysia International) in order to simplify international connectivity for the group’s subsidiaries.

The initiative is another indication of what many see as a booming Asian market, both for western businesses looking East and Asian businesses looking to play on a global stage – Interoute for example recently established a virtual data center in Hong Kong and IDC reported that the market for cloud services in Asia is growing at a CAGR of 30%.

Szlosarek, who is based in Singapore, said the Asian market, while buoyant, has very different dynamics from elsewhere in the world.

“The region is tough from a regulatory and market perspective,” Szlosarek said.

“There a lot of barriers to entry for cloud applications, and companies are protective of their traditional revenues. The infrastructure, in terms of fibre and international capacity, also needs to improve - but there’s so much data center activity here at the moment, it’s scary.”