TELEKOM Brunei Berhad (TelBru) is looking to “go green” with Brunei’s first large-scale data centre, which would give the nation a competitive advantage in regional and global markets.
At a forum on data centre management held at The Empire Hotel & Country Club in Jerudong, Lim Hong Beng, TelBru’s General Manager of Strategic Investment unit, said, “It’s part of the overall TelBru initiative to go green, including the unit that I’m driving, so some of the investment projects (are being) aligned towards that direction.”
Entitled “Managed Data Centres and Disaster Recovery Centres: The Need for Business Continuity and Operational Effectiveness”, the forum, hosted by SiPADU Systems (a subsidiary ICT company of TelBru) encompassed various topics including steps to creating a green data centre.
Lim said, “SiPADU Systems is currently working with international ecosystem partners and TelBru’s own telecommunications infrastructure to bundle, package and offer value-added Managed Data Centre and Disaster Recovery Centre Services for our clients in the country as well as targeting regional multinational companies (MNCs) in the near future. We are also collaborating with various government agencies and institutions in the country to expedite the on-boarding of stakeholders towards the establishment of Brunei Darussalam’s first Green Data Centre project,” he added.
A data centre is a facility used to house data using computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes backup power supplies, data communications connections, security devices, among others.
Data centres typically sell data storage space and other specialised IT services to customers – usually companies which handle large amounts of customer data like banks.
“It is our goal to drive and provide managed data centre and disaster recovery centre services to businesses in Brunei Darussalam in the near future to support business operations of SMEs, government ministries and departments,” he said.
The estimated cost for a green data centre to be built is approximately worth millions of dollars, within the “double digit range”, he added.
Lim said that it would be up to local companies to take advantage of the services that would be provided by the proposed data centre.
He said that TelBru had to be realistic in terms of when the project would be completed saying, “If you’re talking about building a new space (for a green data centre), it’ll take months to put up all the facilities, unless you identify an existing building and renovate it. The fastest we’re looking at is 12-18 months.”
He also said that the decision to go “green” was also a reflection of the recent discussions TelBru held with Aiti and key players in the local ICT industry. “It’s still under discussion (and) brain-storming but there’s a view, a drive, of working towards establishing a green hub for Brunei and taking advantage of the resources available to us in Brunei”.
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