Digital Realty Announces Development of Second Data Center in Hong Kong

Despite the adoption of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, Digital Realty has announced the development of a new, carrier-neutral data center in a purpose-built facility in Hong Kong. The new facility will be named Digital Realty Kin Chuen (HKG11). 

Digital Realty entered Hong Kong in 2012 with the acquisition of Digital TKO (HKG10), located within the Tsueng Kwan O industrial estate and capable of delivering up to 18 megawatts of critical IT capacity.

The new facility is strategically located in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong’s rapidly developing new data center cluster and the primary auxiliary location outside Tseung Kwan O, providing the ability to cater to diverse, multi-site workloads. Upon completion, the new, 21,000 square-meter building will deliver up to 24 megawatts of critical IT capacity. The new Digital Realty data center is expected to be built out and ready for global and regional customers by mid-2021.

Data Center: 12 Floors

“Hong Kong is a regional leader in cloud readiness and has significant potential for further cloud adoption along with a strong base of customers with an appetite for digital technologies,” said Mark Smith, Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Digital Realty.

“Our investment in Hong Kong is another important milestone on our global platform roadmap, enabling customers’ digital transformation strategies while demonstrating our commitment to supporting their future growth on PlatformDIGITAL,” said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer (CEO), A. William Stein.

“As we continue to expand in Asia, the launch of our second facility in Hong Kong underscores its importance as a major data hub, providing customers with the coverage, capacity and connectivity requirements to support their digital ambitions.”

The HKG11 facility will be built up to a total of 12 floors, eight of which will be dedicated for customer deployments. The new facility will also offer superior connectivity through close access to various facilities-based operators.

“Hong Kong is a regional leader in cloud readiness and has significant potential for further cloud adoption along with a strong base of customers with an appetite for digital technologies,” said Mark Smith, Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Digital Realty. “We are delighted to launch our new facility, which will go a long way towards meeting the rapidly growing demand and bringing value to customers across the region, especially from China.”

National Security Law Hong Kong

Digital Realty’s new HKG11 Data Centre – the company’s second facility in Hong Kong

The recently adopted National Security Law in Hong Kong might gradually shape or indirectly shape the data industry’s self-regulation to voluntarily comply with mainland Chinese law. It is expected that this National Security Law, in the end, will have implications for data, privacy, and cybersecurity.

According to Chinese government, this newly adopted law is intended to prevent, stop, and punish acts in Hong Kong that might threaten its national security including foreign interference and terrorism. The Hong Kong National Security Law is not the same though as China’s Cybersecurity Law which is applicable to mainland China while it would be unlikely for Beijing to enforce this Cybersecurity Law in Hong Kong immediately. Over the course of the next few years however, elements of this mainland Cybersecurity Law could be slowly introduced in Hong Kong as well. This could start with law enforcement access to data, security and localization requirements for mainland citizens’ and organizations’ data, along with “critical information infrastructure protection measures.”

Other examples of hosting companies, cloud providers and data center operators active in Hong Kong, with data centers located at this global Internet hub include Equinix, Global Switch, INAP, Rackspace, Leaseweb and IBM/SoftLayer.