TM One unveils Klang Valley Core Data Centre

• New data centre is certified as Tier III by Uptime Institute
• Provides hosting and cloud computing services, among many others

SOMEWHERE in Cyberjaya sits the newly-unveiled Klang Valley Core Data Centre (KVDC). It hardly stands out – the point, as we’re told, is for it to remain fairly obscure, as part of security – but it’s certainly no slouch of a building.

It’s designed to serve Malaysia’s growing digital needs, after all, and after the media tour held recently, one can certainly say it’s state-of-the-art enough.

The KVDC is the project of TM One, the enterprise and public sector business solutions arm of Telekom Malaysia Bhd. Its unveiling signals the completion of TM One’s Twin Core Data Centre – essentially the combination of the KVDC with the Iskandar Puteri Core Data Centre (IPDC) in Nusajaya Johor, completed in November 2017, to better serve its clients.

The Twin Core DC strategy, TM One notes, is to link the core data centres in KL and Iskandar through a 100Gbps digital super highway. The latency between both establishments, we’re told, makes them virtually side-by-side.

The Twin Core set up also allows TM One to provide for its customers in two key economic regions in the country, as well as serve as primary and secondary data centres or disaster recovery for large enterprises and MNCs.

“At TM One, we are always committed to our role in realising Malaysia’s Digital Nation aspirations, enabling Digital Society, Digital Economy and Digital Government through Connectivity and Digital Infrastructure, in line with TM’s vision: ‘Making Life and Business Easier, for a better Digital Malaysia’”, says TM One chief executive officer Azizi A Hadi (pic).

“We are fully aware that businesses nowadays are becoming increasingly dynamic and aggressively adopting digital in their operations. Our state-of-the-art core data centres are purposely designed to fulfil the hosting, cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) requirements of business and enterprise customers, as well as the public sector, towards facilitating their digital transformation journey,” he continues.

Services provided

The KVDC has two development phases, with a planned whitespace capacity of 90,000 square feet (of which 45,000 is now complete). The planned office capacity is 20,000 square feet, which is to house the disaster recovery teams and also to serve as more permanent work offices for organisations who need it.

The KVDC, of course, provides hosting and cloud services, as well as connectivity services. This is a carrier-neutral data centre, so clients running non-TM connectivity like TIME dotcom and Maxis can still be hosted here.

The KVDC offers dedicated racks and private cages, with more than 1,500 VMs (virtual machines) ready to serve customers. It also addresses bandwidth requirement ranging from 10Mbps to 10Gbps with DDoS protection and service level guarantee.

TM One also offers DC migration and relocation planning services, as well as disaster recovery planning and data centre assessment services.

Adding to that, TM One has also announced the launch of TM One Azure Stack, a hybrid cloud solution which offers a platform that focuses on delivering infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) via Microsoft Azure Stack technology, operating in the Twin Core Data Centre.

Bangs and whistles

When asked about how the KVDC is positioned against its competitors, Azizi says that the data centre’s prime location in Cyberjaya is a selling point, allowing it serve in the heart of the nation’s Silicon Valley, so to speak.

The main advantage it has over its peers, however, is its accreditation. The KVDC is certified by the Uptime Institute as Tier III in design and constructed facility, which makes it one of three in Malaysia with the Tier III certification.

The KVDC also qualifies under the Green Building Index. During the media tour, the TM One representative points out that the water used for the server cooling system are harvested rain water collected through the facility’s gutter.

Additionally, the KVDC is certified as Threat, Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (TVRA), ISO 27001 and Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliant. The data centre is secured by nine layers of security, which includes stringent entry checks, biometrics security and mantraps.

Azizi also notes that the KVDC is a high dense power data centre, capable of providing 20MW (mega-watts) of power to its facility. The facilities are powered by two power grids, letting it continue running if one goes down, while 10 generators serves as support power.

“A lot of DC which has space but cannot offer any more power,” he says. “We have both space and power here.”

Against international competitors, Azizi notes that the KVDC benefits from “data sovereignty”. Most public clouds that Malaysians can subscribe to are situated overseas, letting it fall under the purview of other countries – the KVDC, being situated in Malaysia, means that the data is subject to local laws and governance structure.