The data center market in Asia is continuing to expand, especially in countries like Malaysia, according to new research from BroadGroup.

Outsourcing to third party data centers by companies local to the region is also expected to be sustained.

The firm points to industry estimates which suggest that around 70 hyperscale data centers are planned for deployment in Asia over the next 3 years.

“2017 will herald large-scale Internet of Things deployments, and the need for new edge computing strategies,” says Philip Low, chairman of BroadGroup.

“Asia has the opportunity to build on increased IT deployment by local and international enterprises making it incredibly timely to bring the first ever Datacloud event here to debate the drivers and challenges now afforded in the region.

Omer M. Wilson, Senior Director of Marketing, APAC at Digital Realty Data Centers, adds that the Asia Pacific region is at the forefront of the digital economy.

“Many of the markets here are mobile-first which require companies to have a robust IT infrastructure in order to cope with the substantial consumer demand. Naturally, the need for data centers is surging,” he says.

“We see a significant opportunity for colocation to close the gap and meet this demand, especially in locations such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India where it is critical for them to have effective and efficient ways of running large data center operations.

We expect Asia to continue registering high growth in the colocation market as companies from across the region (and also those entering from other parts of the world) look to agile and flexible data center solutions that can help them scale up and enable their digital transformations.