The country, however, remains underserved with most operators still emerging out of telecommunications firms, according to Evolution Data Centres CEO and Co-founder Darren Webb.
At present, amongst the key operators of data centres in the country are telco giants PLDT and Globe. They have their own data centre environment and that's been the main option for cloud adoptions,” Webb said. Webb also observed that more investments are coming in for subsea cable installations, telecom towers, dark fibre deployments and 5G infrastructure, putting the Philippines well on its way to becoming one of the next major markets in Southeast Asia.
“If you look at it from a geological point of view, the Philippines has benefits and has some challenges from that.” Webb shared that around five years ago, cloud companies in the US were reluctant to enter markets in the region, such as Indonesia, due to the lack of familiarity and the perception that it would be difficult to do business as a foreign entity. But today, operators have entered the markets, particularly Indonesia, to capture demand as it started to peak.