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Cloud Adoption and AI to Power APAC’s Future Data Centre Market

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The mass adoption of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) is driving exponential growth for the data centre sector, according to JLL’s new Global Data Centre Outlook. Accounting for 79% of overall demand, hyperscalers (predominantly the global cloud service providers) and edge data centres (smaller facilities located close to the populations and infrastructure they serve) are leading as the fastest-growing segments of the market.

 

According to JLL, the hyperscale market is expected to grow 20% from 2021 to 2026, as more tech companies look to meet surging demand for data processing and storage requirements. With more than 300 new hyperscale sites in development globally today, that number is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of 2024 – up from around 500 sites just five years ago.

 

Data centre uptake in Asia will continue despite economic headwinds, supported by factors including sustained social media usage in China (938 million users) and India (467 million users). According to JLL, the regional hub status of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney remain sound, with a combined 3000MW of total inventory and 765MW under construction. However, enterprises are increasingly considering other hubs and edge markets, including Jakarta and Mumbai, due to growing mobile phone usage.

 

Christopher Street, Managing Director, Head of Data Centres, Asia Pacific, JLL said: “Just five years ago, campus build sizes were commonly around 50MW. Today, it is not uncommon to see builds of 100MW or more. Asia Pacific currently makes up 26% share of global hyperscale data centre capacity in 2022. In mature markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney, we are witnessing a huge gap in capacity, and they are being bridged quickly with large new builds. Furthermore, emerging edge markets are receiving strong interest from cloud providers and hyperscalers. Given the region’s influence in the global economy, significant opportunity now exists in this market.”

 

However, the growth comes with its challenges. Globally, 53% of data centre operators struggle with finding qualified candidates, and 42% face challenges in retaining staff. Along with talent, sustainability is now a top priority for data centre developers, operators and investors, including addressing energy use and emissions. Legislation and self-regulatory initiatives, such as Singapore’s Data Centre Moratorium, are setting standards to mitigate the climate impact of the industry.

 

Glen Duncan, Data Centre Research Director, Asia Pacific, JLL added: “Sustainability has been a standout theme since the pandemic. Encouragingly, many Asia Pacific businesses have embarked on purpose-driven sustainability programmes to deliver impact on climate action for sustainable real estate. With more operators looking to use innovative solutions for energy efficiency, we are confident that the sector’s green ambitions would further advance. For data centre users, outsourcing all their operations or hiring a third-party specialist can help mitigate labour challenges. Those who react the fastest to respond to the twin challenges of talent and sustainability stand to benefit from cost and operational efficiencies perspectives.”

Lendlease enhances its mall operations and security through smart technology

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Lendlease is introducing housekeeping and security robots at its  shopping malls – 313@somerset, Jem®, Parkway Parade and PLQ Mall. By utilising these robots, the  malls will be able to adhere to safe distancing requirements, and also greatly boost the efficiency of  cleaning and facility management employees through optimal resource planning. This underscores  Lendlease’s constant push in innovation to build a skilled workforce aided by technology, whilst tackling  new challenges ahead for the post-pandemic shopping experience. 

Lendlease has made investments in other smart technologies such as RFID (radio-frequency  identification) tagging and IoT dashboard monitoring for waste management. These have greatly  boosted sustainability efforts at Lendlease’s malls and constitute part of the Group’s mission to offer  both shoppers and staff better standards of health, safety, and operational efficiencies. 

Jenny Khoo, Head of Asset Operations, Singapore, Lendlease said, “Lendlease has always been a  big believer in innovation. It is more important than before to stay ahead of the curve in ensuring that we  continue to provide a safe and unparalleled shopping experience. The use of different forms of smart  technologies – robots, AI-enhanced interfaces – can help us realise the vision with customers at the  heart of our approach, adding value for them and Lendlease.” 

Aside from adopting robotic technology, Lendlease will be participating in the National Environment  Agency (NEA) and Enterprise SG’s Sustainability Open Innovation Challenge (SOIC), to crowdsource  for innovative sustainability solutions and build a more sustainable future for the world. 

With Covid-19 accelerating technology use across different industries, malls alike must consider delivering better and safer solutions with the well-being of shoppers in mind. This is also in line with the  digital transformation of Singapore’s retail sector, a key pillar for the nation’s long-term economic growth  strategy. 

ISOTeam Inks MOU with Nippon Paint Singapore & Acclivis to Develop Autonomous Painting Drones for Building Façades

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The partnership aims to improve productivity and reduce manpower reliance through the use of technology, promising benefits such as higher efficiency and safety, increased cost-effectiveness and better quality control plus enhanced environmental friendliness.

ISOTeam Ltd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with Acclivis Technologies and Solutions Pte Ltd and Nippon Paint (Singapore) Co. Pte Ltd to develop and enable the use of autonomous painting drones for the painting of building façades or structures. The collaboration is part of ISOTeam’s strategy to improve its productivity and manpower deployment through the use of technology.

Under the MOU, ISOTeam will lend its expertise in painting know-how and project management while Acclivis, a provider of technology solutions in the enablement of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), Video Analytics and Automation in Asia Pacific, will spearhead the technology and development work in painting drones. Acclivis is a subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Nippon Singapore, Asia Pacific’s leading manufacturer and distributor of paint and coatings and a strategic working partner of ISOTeam since 2004, will focus on marketing this new service through their global networks.

This MOU comes hot on the heels of the Group’s recent announcement on 22 October 2021 that it intends to deploy AI and drone technology for building façade inspections. ISOTeam had entered into a five-year collaboration with H3 Dynamics Pte Ltd to work together exclusively for Housing and Development Board (“HDB”), town councils as well as commercial and condominium building façade inspection projects that are secured by ISOTeam. Following this, the Group has secured a building façade inspection and repairs contract for 154 HDB blocks and will work with H3 Dynamics to utilise AI and drone technology for this project.

Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Anthony Koh, said: “The challenges arising from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated the adoption of technology and we are very glad to be able to work with esteemed and like-minded partners who are keen to explore such new applications with us. The use of AI in the built environment has become increasingly relevant with the challenges in labour availability and cost in Singapore today. This latest collaboration with Acclivis and Nippon Singapore aims to further expand our use of drone and AI technology to high-altitude spray-painting and roller-painting of building exteriors or other structures. It is not only safer and more environmentally friendly but also requires less equipment and labour. Ultimately, the use of such drones will allow ISOTeam to improve our efficiency in terms of time and costs across our repairs and redecoration operations.”

The Group expects the eventual use of autonomous painting drones in its operations to yield significant cost and time savings as fewer workers are required, and the site preparation time, as well as overall project duration, is shortened as the installation of scaffolding is no longer necessary. Quality control is also improved as the drones offer standardised operations and multiple ways for quality assurance inspection and tracking.

Some of the key functions of autonomous painting drones include remote control, high-precision position and posture control for spray quality assurance, the ability to perform coating supply from a ground station via a lift system and from an airborne container, offer real-time status monitoring among others.

Lead image from Unsplash.

SensorFlow Raises US$2.7 Million to Create Smart Hotels Across Southeast Asia

SensorFlow Raises US$2.7 Million to Create Smart Hotels Across Southeast Asia

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SensorFlow, a Singapore-based, smart energy management startup, announced recently that it has secured a further US$2.7 million of Series A funding to accelerate its regional growth and achieve its mission to make Asian hotels smart and energy efficient.

The company’s performance enhancing solutions deliver up to 30 percent in energy savings and up to 40 percent reduction in maintenance costs. The funds raised will boost SensorFlow’s rapidly expanding operations enabling the company to meet the needs of a growing customer base of major hotel chains in Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It will also help drive the company’s entry into new markets including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines which will bring the company closer to its goal of 800,000 smart hotel rooms by 2022.

The new funding is led by private investor Pierre Lorinet followed by Playfair Capital, Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, 2be.lu Investments, Aurum Land and Insitu Asia Holdings. This brings the total funds raised till date to US$3.5 million. Last year’s initial seed funding was led by Cocoon Capital and followed by SG Innovate and SparkLabs under the Entrepreneur First accelerator programme.

Co-founder and CEO of SensorFlow, Saikrishnan Ranganathan, said, “With this investment we are in an even stronger position for market expansion to help more hotels within the region reach their sustainability goals. We look forward to building partnerships, pursuing opportunities with synergistic companies and working with local sustainability schemes across the region to further champion energy efficiency and make smart green hotels a standard practice in the industry. We also have our eyes set on entering Sri Lanka, India, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia within the next two years.”

Over the past year, SensorFlow started deploying property-wide solutions for The Uncharted Co’s 5footway.inn in Singapore and completed trials in three Alila Hotels & Resorts properties in Bali, driving a 30 percent reduction in energy costs. The company also tripled its staff and made key executive appointments in operations, engineering and sales. The team is currently in the midst of securing contracts with hotels and property developers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

The SensorFlow solution solves three key challenges that earlier prevented hoteliers from implementing effective, integrated energy management solutions. The first is the large upfront costs for hardware followed by the inconvenience of a long installation period. The last key challenge has been the lack of integration options with existing systems.

“With energy consumption accounting for more than 60 percent of utility costs, hoteliers constantly seek to improve their energy efficiency. However, they often grapple with the challenge of incurring high costs and disruptions when implementing new energy solutions. This is why we created an innovative, retrofit solution that is easily installed in a matter of minutes and which seamlessly integrates into existing infrastructure. We use wireless sensors to collect real-time data and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate decision-making. This is offered in a zero-upfront cost subscription model – catering to hotels that are unable or unwilling to tap into larger capital expenditure budgets,” added Ranganathan.

According to the International Energy Agency, Southeast Asia’s energy demand is expected to grow by nearly 60 percent by 2040. With the building sector accounting for approximately 25 percent of Asia’s overall energy consumption, there is great potential for solutions that can create more sustainable energy consumption.