Source : Business Times - 17 Nov 2008
Despite crunch, 40,000 sq ft facility to be operational next May UNDETERRED by the global financial crisis, Credit Suisse is driving ahead with plans to open its biggest Asia Pacific data centre in Singapore next May.
The 40,000 square foot Serangoon facility will also rank as one of the company’s largest in the world, and is a ’significant milestone in Credit Suisse’s IT strategy’, the Swiss financial services giant told BT.
‘This facility is further evidence of Credit Suisse’s endorsement of Singapore as a key IT hub for the region,’ said Credit Suisse’s chief information officer for Asia Pacific, Divyesh Vithlani.
Finishing touches are now being applied to this facility. The building is due for completion next month. It will then be fitted out with various IT systems and be ready for operation in May 2009, the company said.
Stemming from a business review in 2005, this facility is part of the Swiss bank’s strategy to centralise and consolidate its data centre operations in fewer but bigger premises, it said. Current adverse market conditions have had ‘no material impact’ on this project, Mr Vithlani added.
The capital investment on this project, which will be named the Credit Suisse APAC Regional Data Centre, is in the region of ‘tens of millions of dollars’, he added.
Credit Suisse employs around 5,500 staff in three locations in Singapore - at One Raffles Link, Changi Business Park and One Raffles Quay. Across Asia Pacific, it operates data centres in Sydney, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Singapore is the company’s fourth largest office after New York, London and Zurich, and its largest one in Asia Pacific.
When completed, the Serangoon data centre will serve as the company’s regional IT hub, providing support for the company’s operations in Asia Pacific including Australia. It will also house IT systems that support Credit Suisse’s offices in New York, London and Zurich. This facility will bring the benefits of centralisation and consolidation, as well as avoiding future investments in terms of data centre expansion in smaller locations such as Hong Kong.
When completed, the Singapore facility will be comparable in scale to the Swiss bank’s similar facilities in the US, UK and Switzerland.
In an unusual move, Credit Suisse has chosen to build its Singapore data centre from scratch, instead of leasing facilities from specialist data centre vendors. A plot of land in Serangoon was purchased for this purpose.
The capital investment incurred is justified considering the long-term business payback and the scarcity of data centre space in Singapore, explained Mr Vithlani. ‘From a risk management strategy, (this move makes sense) as it ensures that we are in complete control,’ he added.
The Serangoon data centre is expected to serve Credit Suisse’s IT needs for the next 15 years, he said. A team of in-house IT staff will manage the data centre.
A major facet of this facility will be its green credentials, Mr Vithlani said. A key portion of it will be fuelled by the use of an energy-efficient IT concept known as virtualisation. This technology, touted to improve utilisation rates of IT resources and therefore enhance power usage economy, is a rising trend among enterprises that operate IT centres. The Serangoon facility will also feature solar panels to generate self-sustaining power. It is also constructed to reduce heat absorption, hence saving on air-conditioning.
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