Digital Realty, ESR, Gaw, DC Byte Join Mingtiandi Data Centre Forum This Week

Mingtiandi’s fifth annual data centre forum continues this week on MTD TV with a spotlight interview session with the Asia Pacific head of the world’s largest pure-play data centre operator, followed by a panel exploring the Japan and Korea markets.

In a solo interview session at 10:00 AM Hong Kong time on Tuesday, 15 October, Mingtiandi founder Michael Cole will speak with Serene Nah, managing director and head of Asia Pacific with Digital Realty about her company’s plans for Asia Pacific and the impact of artificial intelligence on client demand.

That interview will be followed on Thursday by a conversation with senior executives from ESR, Gaw Capital Partners and industry information provider DC Byte as Mingtiandi concludes its data centre forum for 2024.

The five-part series, which is sponsored by Yardi, attracted more than 1,000 view for its first three sessions last week, with recordings of those programmes available here. You may register to watch this week’s programming free of charge through the link above.

Digital Realty Expands in Asia Pacific

Digital Realty’s Nah will be joining Mingtiandi’s Data Centre Forum for the first time after the NYSE-listed REIT broke ground on a 31MW facility near Tokyo in May of this year.

That Japan milestone came after an Indian joint venture between Digital Realty, Brookfield Asset Management and local conglomerate Reliance unveiled its first facility in January. During last year Digital Realty opened a 21MW data centre in Osaka.

While the company has 2.8GW of live IT capacity globally, only 300MW of that total is located in Asia Pacific, with Nah set to share insights on the company’s expansion plans in the region as APAC gears up for AI.

In the Thursday session, which also kicks off at 10:00 AM Hong Kong time, MTD TV will welcome Diarmid Massey, chief executive for data centres with ESR; Phillipa Weber, director of business development for the IDC division at Gaw Capital Partners and Jingwen Ong, Asia Pacific research manager with data centre market intelligence provider DC Byte.

A CBRE survey earlier this year saw investors ranking Tokyo and Seoul as the two most attractive data centre markets in Asia Pacific, however, players active in both markets have pointed to challenges linked to high land prices, scarcity of power resources and rising construction costs.

During the one-hour discussion, the panelists will share their insights on how companies active in the Japan and Korea markets are overcoming these challenges, with both ESR and Gaw Capital providing updates on their data centre initiatives in the two countries.

Onward to Tokyo

Following the conclusion of the data centre forum on Thursday, the Mingtiandi team will be gearing up for the company’s first ever event in Tokyo next month.

Coming your way on 12 November from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Japan’s capital city, the Mingtiandi Tokyo Forum features speakers from UBS Japan Advisors, AXA IM Alts, Warburg Pincus, Lendlease and GLP Capital Partners in a full day of conversations focused on the Japan market.

Panel sessions on Japan’s commercial, industrial, hospitality and residential markets complement a programme that features interviews with senior executives from ESR, GLP, Warburg Pincus and Deloitte Tohmatsu Group.

More information on the forum and on tickets for the event is available here.