Global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions, Digital Realty, has announced the official opening of its first data centre in South Korea, and the first carrier-neutral facility in the country. Digital Seoul 1 (ICN10) will serve as a gateway to global expansion for enterprises in Korea to scale their digital business into new markets globally, and vice versa.
ICN10 is a multi-story facility spanning 22,000 square feet and is strategically located in the northwest region of Seoul within the Sangam Digital Media City, a newly developed urban planning zone populated with technology and media companies, serving as a hub to promote South Korea’s digital economy. With 12 megawatts of critical IT capacity, the new facility will expand the availability of PlatformDIGITAL, Digital Realty’s global data center platform for driving the adoption of cloud computing services and solutions in the region, scaling digital businesses and supporting the development of South Korea as a data hub.
As a carrier-neutral data center facility, Digital Realty expects ICN10 to offer enterprises superior connectivity with direct access to all local exchange carriers in the Korean market. The campus will form a key building block in the development of the industry’s largest open fabric of fabrics, which allows enterprises to expand their connectivity ecosystem and access a rich connected data community on PlatformDIGITAL with over 4,000 participants in nearly 50 metros across 25 countries.
ICN10 is also an NVIDIA-certified colocation provider of choice in South Korea as part of the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center program. The facility is designed to handle Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workloads from NVIDIA, serving as a key launchpad to help enterprises accelerate their AI and analytics capabilities.
“South Korea is a leading technology and digital hub in Asia Pacific and is set to be one of the fastest-growing data centre markets in the region. It was the first country to roll out 5G in April 2019 alongside its Smart Cities initiatives, which has led to a rise in data center deployments in South Korea,” said Mark Smith, managing director of APAC, Digital Realty.
“The opening of our first data centre in South Korea is set to meet the growing demand from enterprises looking to scale their digital footprint across APAC and beyond, as well as deliver greater connectivity, coverage and capacity.”
According to Arizton, South Korea’s data centre market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.72 per cent during the period of 2021 to 2026. The rapid increase in data center demand comes as South Korea ramps up its server infrastructure and cloud computing market, adoption of AI, big data services and IoT applications.
Smith added: “South Korea has consistently been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology adoption in areas such as micropayment transactions, esports and gaming. As it continues to stay in the lead for internet-based economic development, we can expect an upward trajectory in the volume of data exchange, and a corresponding demand for data centre services in the country over the next few years.
“Our entry into the country underscores South Korea’s significance as an emerging data centre hub. ICN10 comes at an opportune time to leverage the growth in South Korea’s digital economy and to support the digital aspirations of our customers in South Korea, Asia Pacific and globally.”
ICN10 will serve as the carrier-neutral connectivity gateway for scale and large enterprise applications hosted in Digital Seoul 2 (ICN11), where construction is already underway, forming a virtually-connected campus. Both facilities will be connected via the Metro Connect system to extend the ICN10 communities out to the core locations.
“ICN10 will be critical to our go-to-market strategy in Seoul and be complementary to ICN11, our hyper-scale campus,” said Jay Weon Khym, country manager for Digital Realty Korea. “It will be uniquely equipped to help organisations reinvent IT using a data-centric approach and unlock data gravity, the effect seen when data accumulates in massive amounts. From small to large colocation footprints, to integration with public cloud and cross-connects, organisations will have access to all the elements of the digital ecosystem from one place.”
