The Singapore colocation market is expected to generate US$811m (S$1.05bn) in 2016 and is projected to grow 9 percent year-on-year in 2017, according to a report from Structure Research.

Singapore is strongly positioned as a default location in Asia for international expansion into the APAC region and has also emerged as the alternative gateway to Hong Kong for entering the Mainland China market, says the report.

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240MW of capacity

The report counts 45 colocation providers in Singapore with a total of 53 operational data centers, and pegged total data center space at 2.3 million square feet of space with up to 240 MW of critical power capacity.

Singapore’s leadership position as a hub to access developing Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand and the Philippines is well-established, and the report drew attention to eight new data centers that will come online this year and next year.

DatacenterDynamics reported on several of these, including 1-Net’s 1-Net North, Digital Realty’s new data center at Loyang Way, and upcoming data centers such as Singtel’s DC West and Telin Singapore’s Telin-3.

“Public cloud demand coming from ‘massive scale’ cloud providers continue to be a prominent driver of data center activity in the Singapore market with Microsoft and Google having already built their own data centers in addition to leasing capacity from colocation providers,” Structure Research analyst Jabez Tan told DCD.

“Amazon Web Services (AWS) has also been active in data center capacity uptake and is also rumored to be building its own facility in the west side of Singapore,” noted Tan. “Alibaba has chosen a different strategy. Instead of building its own data center, it has partnered with Singtel and other undisclosed colocation providers to deploy its cloud footprint in Singapore.”

For now, Tan expects Singapore’s greater connectivity with Malaysia and Indonesia to cement Singapore’s role as a data center hub in Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific.

“Emerging markets such as Cyberjaya and Jakarta continue develop gradually as data sovereignty regulations are put in place that we believe will drive increased data center activity in those markets,” he said. “That being said, Malaysia and Indonesia are still risky markets to deploy in and is currently in the early stages of growth.”