Digital Edge to build South Korea's largest commercial data center

Digital Edge has announced plans to significantly expand its operations in South Korea by building a 120 megawatt (MW) facility in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon through a strategic partnership with local developer SK Ecoplant.

The project forms part of Digital Edge's growing platform in South Korea following its acquisition of two sites in Seoul and Busan from Sejong Telcom in 2021, and demonstrates the company's ongoing commitment to bring industry leading and scalable digital infrastructure to the market.

The project will be the largest commercial data center project in South Korea with total IT power of 120 MW and a capital investment of more than KWR$1 trillion, approximately USD$1 billion. The new facility will be based on Digital Edge's next generation architecture and a highly efficient engineering design to minimise water and energy usage. With South Korea ranked fifth in the Asia Cloud Computing Associations Cloud Readiness Index[1], this facility is designed to meet fast growing demand from local and international cloud providers, as well as other high power density applications such as hyperscale, large digital media, and enterprise deployments.

Located in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, the site is well situated with easy access to Incheon International Airport and Seoul's major business districts via the Seoul-Incheon Expressway. Moreover, the project will provide a natural extension to Digital Edge's existing carrier dense location in Yeoksam (SEL1), with the two data centers linked via third party telecommunication services as well as the Cross LinkTM product to bring a wealth of connectivity options to existing and future customers.

Digital Edge has partnered with established local developer SK Ecoplant, who have a proven track record in the South Korean data center construction market, to deliver on this sizeable greenfield project. The new facility will operate under the Digital Edge brand name and the first phase of the project construction will commence in 2022, with the site expected to be Ready-for-Service in 2024.

"Korea has one of the fastest growing data center markets and this investment forms part of our ongoing commitment to this dynamic country, as we seek to bring the next generation of digital infrastructure to Asia," says Samuel Lee, chief executive at Digital Edge.

"By partnering with SK Ecoplant, a trusted local developer, we will combine their development knowledge with our data center build and operations experience, to deliver the largest, state-of-the-art data center in the country," he says.

Song Young-kyu, head of SK EcoSpace Business Unit, adds, "We are delighted to partner with Digital Edge to build Seoul's largest commercial data center.

"Their global digital infrastructure expertise complements our strong construction experience, making this the ideal partnership as we further expand our data center development business."

Chulho Hyun, Digital Edge country manager for Korea, says the milestone will further consolidate the company's position as one of the leading data center platforms in South Korea.

"Complementing our existing assets in Seoul and Busan, this facility will further enhance our platform across South Korea and offer customers access to an integrated digital ecosystem with world class performance."