Digital Edge has announced plans to build a carrier-neutral data centre in downtown Tokyo, making it the ninth facility for the company in Japan.
The new facility will extend Digital Edge’s footprint in Tokyo’s urban centre, while providing local businesses with low-latency interconnectivity and expanded colocation capacity.
The new data centre, called TY07, is the product of a partnership between Digital Edge and Japanese real estate developer Hulic. This will be Hulic’s first data centre operation and development project.
“Digital Edge … [is an] ideal partner for us as we establish a foothold in Tokyo’s fast growing data center industry and continue to offer the essential services our customers need to thrive,” said Tadashi Nakajima, Senior Executive Managing Officer at Hulic.
Digital Edge will leverage Hulic’s local market knowledge ‘to provide a much-needed digital infrastructure capacity in the heart of Tokyo’.
Samuel Lee, Digital Edge CEO, emphasised the new project’s impact on the company’s long-term strategy.
“This strategic project is another important step in our journey to build a regional platform and establish a thriving digital ecosystem across Asia,” said Lee.
The new data centre, expected to be operational by 2025, will be located in central Tokyo near the financial district, close to dark fibre for optimised interconnect opportunities.
TY07 is not only an opportunity for new customers to access services, it also serves as an extension of capacity for existing customers at Digital Edge’s TY02 data centre. The TY07 data centre is the ninth for Digital Edge in Japan.
Kei Furuta, President & Chief Revenue Officer at Digital Edge, said: “This small but strategically located site will complement our other facilities that cater to enterprise, hyperscale and high power density applications, as we further contribute to the development of Japan’s vital digital infrastructure.”
The data centre opportunity in Japan
The application of IoT, connected vehicles, and AI/ML technologies is increasing demand for low-latency data centre services in urban areas across the Asia-Pacific region. However, real estate in densely populated cities like Tokyo is expensive and difficult to acquire, making data centre construction in projects like TY07 a wise investment for colocation providers.
“This project [offers] much needed high quality colocation and interconnection options to customers in downtown Tokyo,” added Furuta.
The Tokyo urban center has been the focus of investment from several industry players. Equinix recently announced that it would be installing quantum computers in its Tokyo IBX facility to enable customers to trial quantum applications. And AirTrunk recently broke ground on phase 2 of a hyperscale data centre in west Tokyo.
The Japan IoT market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 23.0% until 2027, while edge AI applications in Japan are witnessing a CAGR of 20.03% between 2021 and 2030. The Tokyo data center market is currently valued at US$2.2bn.
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