Visa expands global presence with not one, but TWO new data centres

Visa has announced expanded transaction processing capabilities in two new data centers – one in Singapore and one in the United Kingdom.

According to the global payments giant, these new global processing hubs will increase the speed, resilience and geo-diversity of Visa's infrastructure while further enabling company to work on and deliver new and more sophisticated ways to pay in today's hyper-connected global economy.

Executive vice president of technology at Visa, Rajat Taneja says in conjunction with the majority of other processes around the world, commerce and payments are in the midst of an historic shift from analog to digital.

"A growing majority of people around the globe are leaving cash behind and reaching instead for their cards and devices to pay," says Taneja.

"With our technology investments in Asia and Europe, we're scaling up our infrastructure to meet the explosive growth in digital and mobile payments, while maintaining the secure, convenient and always-on service that our clients and partners expect.

Visa currently has two processing facilities in North America, and the company says the Singapore and UK data centers will expand its global footprint to boost the redundancy and resilience of the four synchronised data centers.

Ultimately, this will minimise the likelihood of service disruptions to Visa's reported 16,600 financial institutions, millions of merchant acceptance locations and three billion cards.

According to Visa, the company has invested in best-in-class tech for both of the new data centers including high-performance hardware and energy-efficient power and cooling infrastructure – the company is planning to start processing global transactions in the new facilities in 2018.

The UK facility expands 10,000 square feet with the goal to bring increased operational resilience for clients in the region while accelerating the speed-to-market for new payment innovations in the European market.

Visa CEO for Europe, Bill Sheedy says the new facility in the UK spells a time of change for Europe.

"The launch of our state-of-the-art data center in Europe is a critical milestone, enabling all our clients and partners to take advantage of Visa's global technical resources and assets," says Sheedy.

The Singapore facility is also 10,000 square feet and is Visa's first transaction processing centre in Southeast Asia, serving clients, cardholders and merhants both across the region and in Visa's global network.

"As home to our Asia Pacific headquarters, Singapore is already a major hub for the Visa business," saysChris Clark, group executive Visa Asia Pacific.

"With our new processing facility in Singapore, we're strengthening our ability to meet rising demand for digital payments, while driving the pace of payment innovation across the Asia Pacific region.

Kelvin Wong, assistant managing director at the Singapore Economic Development Board says they are delighted with Visa's expansion.

"This investment strengthens the sophistication of Visa's business footprint in Singapore and is a testament to Singapore's regional leadership in data management and connectivity," Wong concludes.