Digital Realty Opens First Carrier-Neutral Data Center In South Korea

Digital Seoul 1 will support South Korea’s development as an important data center hub and expand coverage of PlatformDIGITAL® in the region

Digital Realty the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced the official opening of its first data center in South Korea, and the first carrier-neutral facility in the country. Digital Seoul 1 (ICN10) will serve as a gateway to global expansion for enterprises in Korea to scale their digital business into new markets globally, and vice versa.

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ICN10 is a multi-story facility spanning 22,000 square feet and is strategically located in the northwest region of Seoul within the Sangam Digital Media City, a newly developed urban planning zone populated with technology and media companies, serving as a hub to promote South Korea’s digital economy. With 12 megawatts of critical IT capacity, the new facility will expand the availability of PlatformDIGITAL®, Digital Realty’s first of its kind global data center platform for driving the adoption of cloud computing services and solutions in the region, scaling digital businesses and supporting the development of South Korea as a data hub.

As a carrier-neutral data center facility, ICN10 offers enterprises superior connectivity with direct access to all local exchange carriers in the Korean market. The campus will form a key building block in the development of the industry’s largest open fabric of fabrics, which allows enterprises to expand their connectivity ecosystem and access a rich connected data community on PlatformDIGITAL® with over 4,000 participants in nearly 50 metros across 25 countries.

ICN10 is also a NVIDIA-certified colocation provider of choice in South Korea as part of the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center program. The facility is designed to handle Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workloads from NVIDIA, serving as a key launch pad to help enterprises accelerate their AI and analytics capabilities.

“South Korea is a leading technology and digital hub in Asia Pacific and is set to be one of the fastest growing data center markets in the region. It was the first country to roll out 5G in April 2019 alongside its Smart Cities initiatives, which has led to a rise of data center deployments in South Korea. The opening of our first data center in South Korea today is set to meet the growing demand from enterprises looking to scale their digital footprint across APAC and beyond, as well as deliver greater connectivity, coverage and capacity,” says Mark Smith, Managing Director of APAC, Digital Realty.

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According to Arizton, South Korea’s data center market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.72%% during the period of 2021 – 2026. The rapid increase in data center demand comes as South Korea ramps up its server infrastructure and cloud computing market, adoption of AI, big data services and IoT applications.

“South Korea has consistently been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology adoption in areas such as micropayment transactions, esports and gaming. As it continues to stay in the lead for internet-based economic development, we can expect an upward trajectory in the volume of data exchange and corresponding demand for data center services in the country over the next few years. Our entry into the country underscores South Korea’s significance as an emerging data center hub. ICN10 comes at an opportune time to leverage the growth in South Korea’s digital economy and to support the digital aspirations of our customers in South Korea, Asia Pacific and globally,” added Smith.

ICN10 will serve as the connectivity gateway for scale and large enterprise applications hosted in Digital Seoul 2 (ICN11), where construction is already underway, forming a virtually-connected campus. Both facilities will be connected via the Metro Connect system to extend the ICN10 communities out to the core locations.

“ICN10 will be critical to our go-to market strategy in Seoul and be complementary to ICN11, our hyperscale campus. It will be uniquely equipped to help organizations reinvent IT using a data-centric approach and unlock data gravity, the effect seen when data accumulates in massive amounts. From small to large colocation footprints, to integration with public cloud and cross-connects, organizations will have access to all the elements of the digital ecosystem from one place,” says Jay Weon Khym, Country Manager for Digital Realty Korea.

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