CYBERJAYA: The demand for data centre space in Malaysia is far outpacing supply, particularly in Johor, according to Equinix Inc, a global digital infrastructure company, which currently operates two data centres in the country.
Equinix Malaysia managing director Cheam Tat Inn said its Johor data centre rack space was fully taken up just a month after its launch.
“In Johor, just one month after we launched, the racks were completely full. The demand right now far exceeds what the industry can offer. And our second phase of KL1 is already filling up. Customers are already moving in,” he told reporters during a media tour of Equinix’s KL1 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre here today.
Cheam said much of the demand comes from smaller deployments rather than large-scale cloud infrastructure.
“We get inquiries in Johor almost every other week. If there’s no space, we try to fit them into KL. We’ll ask if they would consider KL instead, because here, we still have availability. Some agree because they need the facility, but others insist on Johor due to its proximity to Singapore. There are customers who only want to be very close to Singapore.”
According to him, the Johor facility is fully taken up, while Kuala Lumpur is about 90% occupied.
Cheam said Equinix is positive about the outlook of Malaysia’s data centre industry. “Malaysia is the fastest growing in the Asean region for new data centres or the data centre industry.”
The key reason, he said, is the growing digital economy in Asean which drives the need for supporting digital infrastructure across the region.
“Singapore is at a stage where I don’t think they can expand anymore in terms of physical capacity. But the demand for digital infrastructure in Singapore is still strong. It’s just that they’re going to look elsewhere to expand. Johor seems to be the next choice because of its proximity. It’s just incredible. The number of new data centres in Johor is impressive.”
Cheam highlighted Malaysia’s advantage of hosting three major digital ecosystems – data centres, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors – which strengthen the country’s position in the regional technology landscape.
“We are one of the few countries in the world with all three tech ecosystems in one place. That positions us well to deploy digital infrastructure and support the rapid growth of the region’s digital economy. It’s a very positive message for Malaysia.”
Equinix has completed the second phase of its KL1 data centre here. The latest phase added 450 cabinets to the facility to meet the demand for digital infrastructure in Malaysia.
“Completing KL1’s second phase within the first year of our operations in Malaysia signals our deep commitment to helping the nation become a strategic location in the region’s digital economy,” Cheam said.
Since launching operations in 2024, Equinix has secured global and local customers across diverse sectors, including cloud and IT services, content and digital media, enterprises, and network providers.
Equinix has interconnected its Malaysian data centres – KL1 in Kuala Lumpur and JH1 in Johor – with its existing data center campus in Singapore via Equinix Fabric.
With future expansions into Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, Equinix aims to facilitate seamless business exchanges and enable customers to deploy multisite, latency-sensitive workloads across Asean.
