The industrial district of Jurong East will soon host a colossal 11-story structure that will house Facebook’s first data center in Asia — an endeavor that will see the social media giant investing over S$1.4 billion.
In a press release, Facebook announced that the 170,000 square meter facility will form part of its growing presence in Singapore and Southeast Asia and will support hundreds of jobs after its construction.
“We selected Singapore for a number of reasons, including robust infrastructure and access to fiber, a talented local workforce, and a great set of community partners, including the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Jurong Town Corporation, both of which have helped us move this project forward,” the tech company noted, adding that the city-state’s established policies foster a “business-friendly environment”.
According to Reuters, the complex will be located close to Google’s upcoming data center (their third one) in Singapore. The search engine giant expects mobile growth, e-commerce, and cloud computing demand to explode in the region.
Facebook’s existing data centers around the world have been touted as eco-friendly and the same label will apply to its upcoming facility in Singapore, which will apparently be powered by “100 percent renewable energy”. Liquid cooling technology will be utilized to minimize water and power consumption, and the building’s facade will be made out of perforated material to facilitate better airflow (server rooms run very hot).
According to Data Center Knowledge, Facebook was already looking for a data center network engineer in Singapore as far back as 2015. It was initially believed that Facebook would be building their first Asian data center in Taiwan.
