Globe to expand data center operations

MANILA, Philippines - Encouraged by a broadening market base, Globe Telecom, one of the leading telecommunications providers in the Philippines, said it plans to expand data center operations this year on the back of increasing demand from local firms for cost-efficient and effective IT infrastructure and data processing capabilities.

Globe has begun construction of two new sites in Quezon City and Cavite that are expected to be ready for service by yearend. Moreover, to address the growing need of enterprises rapidly filling up capacity, Globe will be expanding existing data center facilities in Makati and Cebu, further solidifying its position as the provider with the widest network and footprint of data centers in the Philippines.

The company currently has the most number of data centers among Philippine telcos, with five facilities across Luzon and Visayas that boast of significantly high utilization due to very strong demand.

The Globe Data Center is a technologically-advanced and highly-secure facility where customers can store vital information and run mission-critical systems. It eliminates a company’s need to build, maintain and expand its own data center. Hence, customers are allowed to focus on their core businesses. Globe also offers a wide range of managed data center services and solutions that suit the varying needs of its enterprise customers. These include co-location, dedicated server hosting, disaster recovery services and managed security services.

“Our customers who invest in the data center have experienced huge savings in capital expenses, with significantly reduced maintenance and operational costs. This cost-efficiency advantage, along with the data center’s high availability and global connectivity, is the main driver on the increasing number of companies who subscribe to the service. Consequently, our data center revenue continues to increase year-on-year, with an impressive double-digit growth posted from 2010 to 2011,” Globe Business head Jesus Romero said. Globe Business is the unit in Globe Telecom that serves business customers in the Philippines, from large enterprises to SMEs.

To ensure the integrity and reliability of its data centers, Globe has achieved various certifications such as ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System), ISO 27001:2005 (Information Security Management Systems) and British Standard 25999 (Business Continuity Management System). Globe is the first and only telco in the Philippines to receive BS 25999 certification, confirming that the company is more than capable to proactively plan, prevent and navigate through difficult situations. While natural disasters are unavoidable and there is no guarantee that it will not lead to service disruptions, the data centers of Globe have the capability to immediately recover mission-critical services and minimize the impact to subscribers.

The Globe data centers also meet the stringent standards set by the Telecommunications Industry Association, specifically TIA-942, which specifies the minimum requirements for data center infrastructure. Globe is Tier 3-certified based on the TIA-942, as validated by an independent auditing firm, signifying that the company has concurrently maintainable site infrastructure guaranteeing 99.982 percent availability.

Further, Globe recently upgraded its data center network facilities with Cisco’s CRS-3 Carrier Routing System and the Nexus 7000 Series Switches. This connects the company’s suite of cloud solutions to the world with high-capacity 10Gbps connections, making Globe the first telco in the country to deploy a terabit-level data center infrastructure through its CRS-3 routers and Nexus 7000 switches. This enhancement ensures Globe’s business customers that their applications will not be degraded by passing through bottlenecks on the network side.

“The growing need for data center facilities in the country is the reason why Globe is keen to embark on expansions and upgrades,” said Grace-Jarin Castillo, Globe Business enterprise segments head, “These upgrades and increase in capacity will bring the network infrastructure of our data centers to the highest levels of performance, availability and security.”