With focus on data centre connectivity, Nokia eyes Thailand as regional hub
Nokia sees Thailand as a regional potential hub of Southeast Asia's digital industry, while committing to becoming one of the best solution providers for data centre connectivity.
In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Ajay Sharma, head of Nokia Thailand and Cambodia, pledged to expand the company’s role and footprint in the country and region just as digital-related businesses are expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.
He said the company aims to be part of this evolving market where the data centre is just starting.
"This is the actual game of connecting real data centres, not only within Thailand, but also across the border," he said, adding that Nokia is in a very good position because it already has a proven technology, established interfaces, and installed ways.
"I think we are on the right path for the scale of the market," he said.
His confidence stems from Thailand's Board of Investment implementing several incentive programmes, ranging from tax exemptions to other benefits for companies investing in digital technology and data centres in the kingdom.
Sharma explained that the expansion of digital businesses necessitated the use of accurate and dependable data centres.
As a result, it is not surprising to learn that several outstanding companies, including Etix Everywhere, Singtel-AIS, and Raimond Land-Nautilus Data Technologies, have already laid out a collaboration plan to develop a data centre campus in Thailand, he said.
Data centre market
According to RationalStat's research, the Thai data centre market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of around 25% between 2022 and 2028.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that by 2025, the country's data centre market will have doubled in size to 100 megawatts of current capacity.
"As you may know, there are many data centres coming up in Thailand, where digital 4.0 is widely promoted. And with that, many data centres have been deployed in order to digitise industries," Sharma explained.
He pointed out that the increased focus on hyper-scale cloud service providers' interest in the region and the transition from company-owned servers within office buildings to public cloud facilities would increase the number of data centres.
However, he noted that the distributed and complex data centre landscape indicates difficulties in connecting the disparate on-premise, private, public, and edge co-location facilities that enterprises use.
"As the data centre is growing in a big way, great connectivity is required to connect data centres. And for that, we [Nokia] provide connectivity solutions," Sharma said.
He defined good connectivity as all-encompassing high-speed, low-latency, ultra-secure connectivity and power and space cost savings that allows multiple data centres to be integrated into a virtually unified and cohesive environment.
"As these organisations transition to cloud IT, We believe that Nokia's Data Centre Interconnect [DCI] solutions will be required. The right cloud interconnect solutions can help deliver the benefits that most organisations require, whether that is control, security, flexibility, agility, or lower cost," he says.
Nokia plays an important role in providing organisations with a variety of DCI solutions for cloud interconnection.
He added that these solutions provided flexibility, scalability, and security required to support current DCI needs, as well as the capacity, performance, and agility demanded to support cloud interconnect across different cloud types.
Why Nokia is 'first choice'
"Our solutions provide business-critical DCI for the cloud, lowering the risk to your and your customers' data. Cloud DCI assists you in meeting stringent business continuity, regulatory, and compliance requirements," he said.
Although there are several firms in the data centre connectivity market, Sharma claimed that Nokia is the first choice for all of the major data-centre players who are exiting the market.
He emphasised Nokia's long-developing connectivity solution technology, which provides a reliable system, chipset backward compatibility between old and new ones, and proof evolution for larger and mega traffic management.
"While Nokia's IP connectivity helps connect data centres in private deployments, such as linked enterprise own data centres, its optical networks take on the enormous role of bridging these connections for worldwide access. This is a requirement that is becoming increasingly important for today's cloud-driven global enterprises," he explained.
Growth in Thailand
Nokia sees potential for growth in Thailand as the company unveils its Technology Strategy 2030, which identifies trends and emerging technologies that will shape technology, networks, and the world over the next seven years.
The key trends influencing Nokia are AI, cloud continuum, metaverse, application programming interfaces economy, industry 5.0 with the rising role of collaborative robots and Internet of value, sustainability, and security.
According to the company, end-user data traffic demand will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 22-25% through 2030. In 2030, the global network traffic demand is expected to range between 2,443 and 3,109 exabytes per month.
"We see the potential of digital to transform business, industry, and society in Thailand, and Nokia plays a critical role in enabling this," said the Nokia chief.
He assured of more collaboration and partnership with Thailand's public and private sectors, indicating that Nokia's strategic priorities now and in the years to come will seek to drive the business towards technological leadership in mobile networks, network infrastructure, cloud and network services, and Nokia technologies.
