Outsourcing to boost Indonesia's data centers, report says

A recent report from BroadGroup suggests Indonesia's data center market has the potential for future growth as the nation drives a shift to outsourcing.

As the third largest data center market, among south-east Asia's four principle economies, the nation's industry boasts strong international cable connectivity and an active Internet Exchange.

The report, Data Centers Indonesia, cites the country's potential, development space and an attractive local economy to overseas investors and enterprises as the drivers of this growth.

However, there are several challenges for Indonesia's data centers. Power developments have not been as fast with infrastructure largely based on coal.

Although plans are in place to develop further clean power supply, this could take another four years.

For Indonesia, underdeveloped enterprise outsourcing demonstrates there is room to grow, but it also reflects the stage of evolution in data centers in the country.

Philip Low, BroadGroup, says that Indonesia is often seen as a promising market for data center growth.

He notes, "it holds tremendous potential as demand and usage shifts from early reliance on local mobile driven data, to third party outsourcing with overseas enterprises which we will see over the next few years. The power issues will need to be resolved in the interim.

The report suggests that Indonesia has many advantages for data center growth which could yield a further 34% in terms of space over the next two years.

As sheer demand outweighs sensitivities over data privacy and security, advances in outsourcing could be driven at a faster rate.