1-Net Singapore ( www.1-net.com.sg ) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with three other data centres in Southeast Asia to form an alliance aimed at meeting acute data centre requirements in the region.

The Data Centre Alliance, which includes Malaysia's The AIMS Asia Group ( www.aims.com.my ), Vietnam's CMC Telecom ( www.cmctelecom.vn ) and Thailand's TCC Technology ( www.tcc-technology.com ), in addition to 1-Net Singapore, will form a one-stop hub that provides a full suite of services and connectivity.

According to the Alliance, the data centre services market in Asia is experiencing "colossal demand", driven by sharp growth in IT services. According to an IDC Market Analysis Report, the market for data centre services in Singapore alone is estimated to be US$270 million in 2007, and is forecasted to expand at an annual compound growth rate of 7 per cent to reach US$326 million in 2011.

Mr Yow (left): We see this Alliance as an opportunity to meet the regional business needs of our customers.

The members of the Alliance will have a combined space of more than 500,000 square feet and a projected annual turnover of S$100 million by 2009, making it one of the biggest data centre operators in the region catering to first-tier telcos, government agencies, banks and other businesses.

The focal point of the Alliance is to create network and systems interoperability while allowing peering between all its data centres to enable seamless transfer of data and digital media for enterprises. It will also offer value added managed services such as Digital Asset Management and delivery systems.

"We see this Alliance as an opportunity to extend our services by providing a comprehensive suite of regional data centre solutions to meet the regional business needs of our customers," said Mr Yow Tau Keon, Managing Director of 1-Net Singapore.

Through the Alliance, customers can easily set up complementary and alternative disaster recovery sites across borders. The objective is to ensure enterprise customers can gain easy access to the same high level of service at every data centre within the Alliance.

With the signing of the MOU, the members of the Alliance will now move towards definitive agreements between the parties and common Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and establish peering between the data centres so as to start operations by end of 2008. Other priorities of the Alliance include working towards jointly developing technologies and promoting adoption of industry standards among its members such as a Green Data Centre initiative to drive energy efficient processes and standards.

The data centres within the Alliance will meet Tier III and above standards as stated by the Data Centre Tier Classification from Uptime Institute. They will also be adopting ISO27001 as a reference for their information security management system.

Welcoming the formation of the Data Centre Alliance, Ms Tham Ai Chyn, Assistant Chief Executive (Industry and Cluster Development), Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said it was in line with IDA's efforts to establish a trusted and conducive environment for digital media businesses to securely host, manage and trade digital media assets, under its Digital Marketplace programme. "We are encouraged to see the Alliance focusing on promoting industry best practices and standards as this also aligns well with our efforts to establish best practices and technical standard guidelines to facilitate international digital media asset exchange and trade," she said.