Thailand’s digital economy and data use to expand x 4 in the next 3 years

by Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

Data use in the country’s fast-paced digital economy is forecast to jump four times over the next three years, resulting in massive demand and growth for data storage facilities.

The managing director of Supernap Thailand, Sunita Bottse, says that the number of Thailand’s mobile device users has reached 46 million out of the country’s 69 million population, while the number of Internet users is currently around 27 million, up 24 per cent from the previous year.

Supernap Thailand is one of the country’s major data providers.

The widespread use of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Line, Twitter and Instagram, coupled with the high growth rate of e-commerce, social commerce and mobile commerce platforms have led to a huge increase in personal and other data needing secured storage facilities to meet regulatory, privacy and other legal requirements.

For example, Thai banks have to be in compliance with the Bank of Thailand’s regulations on data residency and privacy.

Bottse said Supernap Thailand’s data centre at Hemaraj Industrial Estate 2 in Chon Buri province is regarded as one of the most secure facilities in ASEAN and meets the so-called Tier IV design and operation standards.

As one of the most advanced facilities in ASEAN countries, it is served by eight neutral carriers for global high-speed connectivity required by enterprises in the digital economy as well as by electronic government and other public services.

Bottse said Supernap Thailand aims to tap the data storage demand in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), which covers Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao, where the government has been offering tax and other incentives for foreign and Thai investors to launch digital and other new technology ventures.

Since its opening in the last quarter of 2017, Supernap Thailand has acquired clients for half of its capacity with the remaining leases expected to be sold out in two years.

The Thailand 4.0 initiative has led to a rapid growth of the digital economy along with more use of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in various sectors, especially banking, insurance and other financial services.

For example, many Thai banks have moved their customers to mobile platforms and provide pre-approval on mortgage and other loan requests online, resulting in the use of analytic and massive personal data storage.

The market for data storage has expanded 30 per cent over the past year alone, with a hybrid cloud-based model emerging as a preferred choice for on- and off-premise facilities.

For banks, some data are stored on premises, while non-core applications are stored on the cloud service. Supernap Thailand has a number of cloud partners, including AWS and Azure.

According to Thai law, some primary banking and other data cannot be stored outside Thailand.

ORIGINAL STORY: The Nation