Digital Edge says its first Philippine data centre, NARRA1, will be ready for service from 1 March 2023, several months after the announcement itself. The 10 megawatt facility in Biñan, Laguna, south of Manila, is a joint project with the local family office Threadborne Group and will hold 2,200 cabinets.

The company says it will be the largest carrier-neutral facility in operation in the Philippines when it completes, and that it has already taken bookings from several major domestic internet service providers.

A small market, and the base under the percentage

Largest in operation is a statement about the Philippines rather than about the region. Digital Edge cites a forecast that colocation there will reach USD 313 million by 2026, growing at about 22 per cent a year — a market measured in millions of dollars, not billions, which is the base the growth rate is built on. Ten megawatts is modest next to the campuses being announced in Japan, Korea and Malaysia, but it is significant in a market that has had few carrier-neutral options.

The numbers worth keeping are the efficiency ones, because they are stated against defined methods: a power usage effectiveness below 1.2 and a water usage effectiveness of 1.355, with triple certification sought under LEED, BERDE and EDGE. Those are targets and applications rather than results.

The chief executive, Samuel Lee, calls NARRA1 the company's first major greenfield design-and-build project. It is being announced as available before it is available, which is normal in this business, and the date to hold is 1 March. Threadborne's chairman, Charlie Rufino, described the project as critical infrastructure delivered without compromising environmental responsibilities — the local partner's standard framing for a facility that will be judged on its power contracts rather than on its announcement.