SOUTHEAST ASIA CONSTRUCTION02 Jul 2020
Digital Realty breaks ground on first facility in South Korea

Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions, has commenced work on its first facility in South Korea - Digital Seoul 1 (ICN10). It is being built on a 22,000 sq ft (2,044 sq m) land parcel within the Sangam Digital Media City in northwest Seoul, a newly developed urban planning zone focused on technology and media companies, designed to promote South Korea's digital economy. 

Set to be the first carrier-neutral facility in the country, the new ICN10 data centre is is scheduled to be ready for customers in the fourth quarter of 2021. It is able to accommodate 12 MW of information technology (IT) load and will provide seamless connectivity, with a vibrant community of domestic and internal bandwidth and data service providers, internet transit, and multiple internet access services. The building will cover more than 162,000 sq ft (15,050 sq m) of area, spanning 12 levels. 

The establishment of the ICN10 data centre marks a significant expansion of PlatformDIGITAL across Asia Pacific, which will enable customers to rapidly scale digital transformation by deploying critical infrastructure with a leading global data centre provider at the heart of a growing community of interest in Seoul.

“Our investment in South Korea is an important milestone on our global platform roadmap, adding coverage, capacity and connectivity capabilities to enable our customers' digital transformation strategies while demonstrating our commitment to supporting customers' future growth on PlatformDIGITAL,” said A. William Stein, CEO of Digital Realty. “The current pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation and adoption of cloud services across the world. Customers in the Asia Pacific region are set to gain from our new ICN10 facility, as they ramp up their own digitalisation efforts.”

“South Korea is one of the key digital hubs in the APAC region with a major focus on digital technology and solutions,” added Mark Smith, managing director for APAC at Digital Realty. “Applications such as big data, artificial intelligence, 5G mobile services and the internet of things are already gaining momentum. South Korea is also one of the fast growing data centre markets in the region and a strategic market for us to enter as the first global provider to build from the ground up.”

“We are eager to welcome customers to ICN10,” said Jay Weon Khym, country manager for Korea at Digital Realty. “There is a significant opportunity for us to provide a trusted foundation for the nation’s technology roadmap. Upon completion, the multi-storey facility will not only support domestic business growth, but also broaden opportunities for more international companies to expand their core digital assets into the South Korean market with a truly-carrier neutral platform."  

Digital Realty is one of the world’s largest owners, developers and operators of highly reliable data centre facilities. The new Seoul development will strengthen Digital Realty’s presence within the Asia Pacific region, where the company currently operates a network of data centre located in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne.

Images: Digital Realty