CSF Group Launches Largest Commercial Green Data Centre in Southeast Asia

Cyberjaya, MALAYSIA (9 January 2012) – CSF Group plc (AIM: CSFG), the leading provider of data centre facilities and services in Southeast Asia and the largest provider of data centre services in Malaysia, today launched CSF Computer Exchange 5 (CX5), Malaysia’s first commercial green data centre and the largest facility of its kind in Southeast Asia.

Located in Cyberjaya, CX5 is a carrier-neutral high end purpose built data centre which consists of three blocks of 4-storey buildings and a Class A office block. It offers 201,000 square feet of net data centre floor space and a gross floor area of approximately 580,000 square feet. The facility is one of three data centres developed and operated by CSF Group in Cyberjaya.
L-R Adrian Yong, President and Group CEO, CSF Group and YB Datuk Seri Dr. Maximus Ongkili, Minister, MOSTI

CX5 has been awarded the provisional Green Building Index (GBI) Certified Rating which recognises the facility as a green, sustainable building that has satisfied certain requirements as determined by the GBI Accreditation Panel. These requirements include among others factors such as the ability to provide energy savings, water savings, a healthier indoor environment, better connectivity to public transport, the adoption of recycling and greenery for their projects, and reducing impact on the environment.

“We started our first data centre, CX1, 10 years ago in 2002. It has been a decade of achievements and innovation and with the launch of CX5 today, we now operate the largest commercial GBI Certified Rating data centre in Southeast Asia. CX5 is part of our growth strategy to provide world-class data centre facilities to our customers,” said Adrian Yong, CSF Group President and CEO.

Classified as a Tier 3 data centre, CX5 is designed to host mission critical servers and computer systems. The data centre is TIA-942 compliant and is equipped with fully redundant subsystems including cooling, power, network links, storage and stringent physical security features. Provisions are made in CX5 to be expandable to dual active power sources to the data centre. Two (2) onsite utility power stations are already constructed and mirrored duplication of Mechanical & Electrical plant rooms are ready on each data centre floors for the future upgrading works. All three of CSF Group’s high-end carrier neutral data centres in Cyberjaya -- CX1, CX2 and now CX5 -- are linked to a dual-ring electrical grid and advanced fibre connectivity.

CSF Group is one of the project owners of the Entry Point Project 3 (EPP 3) under the Business Services NKEA of the country’s Economic Transformation Programme. The Malaysian government has identified data centre business as a significant contributor to the country’s economic growth, with a projection that this sector will contribute RM2.4 billion to Gross National Income and create about 13,000 jobs by 2020.

“As global demand for IT services such as hosting and shared services outsourcing continue to rise, CSF Group is well poised to capitalise on this growth opportunity and help position Malaysia as a world-class data centre hub,” said Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Maximus Ongkili, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Gearing for Regional Expansion
In its financial results for the first half of financial year 2012 announced on 28 November 2011, CSF Group posted revenues of RM91.7 million compared to RM46.6 million in the first half of 2011. This represented a revenue growth of 96.8 percent. According to Yong, the Group has achieved outstanding financial results even in a global economic climate that continues to be uncertain.

“We are on the right track to achieve profitable growth and increasing sustainable revenues while investing in the longer-term core assets of the business – our expertise, our employees and our customers,” said Yong.

“With CX5 we are raising the bar as one of the largest providers of reliable, secure data centre space together with expertise in infrastructure services for our customers in Malaysia and the Asian region. We are focused on expanding our footprint into the region, with more high-end commercial data centres in the pipeline in China, India, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam,” added Yong.

CSF Group currently has more than 200 customers in the region. These tenants comprise companies involved in various industries including government, telecommunications, banking, insurance, automotive, oil and gas, food and beverage, travel, manufacturing and information technology.