The data center arm of telco giant PLDT Inc. is ramping up its capacity to address the increasing requirements of customers as digitalization in the country further picks up.
In a statement on Thursday, ePLDT Inc. said its VITRO Makati 2 would add 12 megawatts (MW) of capacity to power nearly 1,600 new racks.
The expansion will go live next month, bringing the facility’s capacity to 3,360 racks backed by 20 MW.
“The expansion of VITRO Makati 2 will enable ePLDT to accommodate additional requirements of existing customers and to keep up with the country’s ever-increasing data center demands,” ePLDT president and CEO Victor Genuino said.
A data center is a facility used to store critical data and host cloud services. They are measured in megawatts because they are power-intensive.
The PLDT unit said its move to beef up capacity was in line with the accelerated adoption of digital financial services, e-commerce and digital media, among others.
ePLDT is also currently constructing its 11th data center, the five-hectare VITRO Sta. Rosa in Laguna.
The facility, which is designed to have a power capacity of up to 50 MW, is slated for completion this year.
In another development, PLDT and its partners are set to activate the $75-million Asia Direct Cable (ADC), a 9,400-kilometer (km) subsea cable system, this year.
ADC is a global consortium composed of PLDT, China Telecom, China Unicom, National Telecom, Singtel, SoftBank Corp., Tata Communications and Viettel Group.
From the Philippines, ADC will be connected to Tuas, Singapore; Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong; Maruyama, Japan; Quy Nhon, Vietnam; Sri Racha, Thailand; and Shantou, China. The project seeks to boost delivery of data across East and Southeast Asia.
The Pangilinan-led company announced the start of construction in October 2022.
Also in June last year, PLDT activated the 14,000-km US-Transpacific Jupiter Cable System. It links the US, Japan and Daet, Camarines Norte and has increased the company’s international capacity to 60 terabits per second.