A groundbreaking ceremony was carried out on by UNN Director Yang Mulia Puan Hajah Amalina binti Haji Ghani, UNN Chief Executive Officer Dr Steffen Oehler, Vertiv Vice President, Asia Mr Paul Churchill and UNN Senior Vice President Data Centre & IT Mr Daniele Cuocci at UNN Tungku Submarine Landing Station to officiate the construction of a 51,000 square feet data centre facility there.
Leading the groundbreaking ceremony with recital of prayers and blessings were UNN Religious Committee Chairman Pg Abdul Rahim Pg Hj Tuah and officer at Department of Mosque Affairs at Ministry of Religious Affairs Hj Md Azrol Alim bin Hj Zaini. Also present during the groundbreaking were UNN Chief Financial Officer Mr Bernd Flack, UNN Chief Operations Officer Mr Lukasz Trzos, Vertiv Senior Director of Telecom Sales Asia Mr Danny Wong, Vertiv Project Director Selvarajoo Sibramaniam, Vertiv Head of Telecom Sales Malaysia & Brunei Mr Kevin Khong, UNN Senior Vice President Network Factory Mr Chris Phan, and other senior managers, managers, and officers from UNN.
In his welcoming remarks, UNN CEO Dr Steffen outlined the project’s progress since the signing of contract between UNN and Vertiv in March this year, with data centre modules and equipment already fabricated and is currently undergoing testing before they will be shipped to Brunei and erected at Tungku Submarine Landing Station, and Berakas Power Company progressing well with providing the location a second independent power feed to ensure high availability and resilience of the data centre facility.
“The new data centre will be ready within five months from now and comes at the right time as our fiberization project is in its final phase and 5G services just launched in June this year,” said Dr Steffen. “With reliable and high-speed connectivity readily available in Brunei, the digitalization within the economy of Brunei Darussalam is looking for all enablers to implement projects for smart logistics, smart city, Digital Payment Hub, e-Government, Internet of Things, and others. The new Data Centre is ready for service early next year and will add to the building blocks of our UNN DCIT portfolio to further enable ICT companies in Brunei to provide what the Digital Masterplan 2025 has projected, and what the economy needs.”
“It is my pleasure to witness this momentous occasion as we commence the construction of Brunei’s first prefabricated modular data centre. Today is a milestone for Vertiv as we embark on a journey with UNN to support Brunei’s digitisation roadmap,” remarked Vertiv Vice President, Asia Mr Paul Churchill. “I am confident that our collective efforts of pursuing digitalization, partnered with our [mutual] passion for innovation, will make this project a resounding success.”
UNN data centre is built to host data centre and IT services and infrastructure of government and private businesses in Brunei. Together with other UNN’s existing data centre locations, the increased capacity and services are provided in geo-redundancy. To ensure the data centre facility is in a high availability and high energy efficiency state, UNN worked together with Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, to design and construct UNN data centre as an eco-efficient infrastructure that is in line with Brunei’s digitization roadmap and to ensure on meeting Brunei’s increasing digital needs.
The prefabricated modular data centre design which consisted of 200 racks provided by Vertiv offers deployment speed that is 30% faster than traditional builds, more flexibility and modularity that are efficient to install and set-up as opposed to the traditional brick and mortar design. Another advantage provided by Vertiv is that the data centre is also designed to reduce emissions by using state-of-the-art technology for environmentally conscious practices without compromising productivity, which is a priority to UNN. The eco-efficient data centre is estimated to be completed in 5 months and is expected to open by the early quarter of 2024.
