True Internet Data Centre (True IDC), a leading data centre and cloud service provider, has earmarked 150 million baht to expand its Asean operations within two years.
The data cente arm of Ascend Group, which is a subsidiary of CP Group, aims to become a top five cloud and data centre provider in terms of service capacity in the region by 2017, said general manager Thanasorn Jaidee.
It forecast spending on data centre and cloud services across Asean would reach US$8 billion by 2018, up from $3.9 billion in 2013.
"The rapid growth of e-business, social networks, big data and the Internet of Things is boosting the use of data centre and cloud services," he added.
To achieve its ambitious goal, True IDC will provide data centre and cloud services in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia by 2016, followed by the Philippines.
Myanmar services, the first overseas operation, will kick off next month. Its data centre is located in the Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Park in Yangon.
Demand for the data centre service in Myanmar comes from telecom, banking, high-technology and international firms. The service will cover co-location and management. By 2016, True IDC expects to double its data centre capacity in Yangon and offer cloud service when the internet service is more stable.
"Myanmar's data centre service is a blue ocean market with modest competition. We are the first international data centre provider over there," Mr Thanasorn said.
It aims to earn $1-1.5 million from the Myanmar operation next year.
The company also plans to collaborate with local partners in Asean as the investment is lower than building its own cloud data centre facilities.
By the year-end, the company expects revenue will grow by 30-40% with 700 million baht in Thailand. Overseas revenue will account for 20-30% of the total 1 billion baht by 2017, Mr Thanasorn said.
It will invest up to 800 million baht to increase capacity to 4,000 computer racks by opening the third data centre in Bang Pu, Samut Prakran.
Meanwhile, Supernap, a premium data centre in which True has a stake, will operate a data centre in Chon Buri by the third quarter of 2016.
"We believe the National Data Centre project under the digital economy scheme will drive spending on data centres nationwide to grow 50-100% from 30% currently," he said.
Spending on data centre and cloud services in Thailand is set to hit $794 million in 2018.
True IDC is a dominant player in data centre and cloud services due to the capacity and completed infrastructure.