Singapore, 18 June 2008 - Four of South East Asia’s leading data centres namely Singapore’s 1-Net Singapore, Malaysia’s The AIMS Asia Group, Vietnam’s CMC Telecom and Thailand’s TCC Technology (TCCT) announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a Data Centre Alliance to meet acute data centre requirements in the region. Together, the data centres within the Alliance will form a one-stop Hub that provides a full suite of services and connectivity.

With a combined space of more than 500,000 square feet and a projected annual turnover of S$100 million by 2009, the Alliance will become one of the biggest data centre operators in the region catered for first-tier telcos, government agencies, banks and other businesses.

The focal point of this Alliance is to create network and systems interoperability while allowing peering between all its data centres to enable seamless transfer of data and digital media for enterprises. It will also offer value added managed services such as Digital Asset Management and delivery systems.  Through the Alliance, customers can easily set up complementary and alternative disaster recovery sites across borders. The objective is to ensure enterprise customers can gain easy access to the same high level of service at every data centre within the Alliance.

Upon signing the MOU, members of the Alliance will move towards definitive agreements between the parties, common Service Level Agreements (SLA) and establish peering between the data centres so as to start operations by end of 2008.

Other priorities of the Alliance include working towards jointly developing technologies and promoting adoption of industry standards among its members such as a Green Data Centre initiative to drive energy efficient processes and standards.

Unlike other data centres, this four-country Alliance extends a unique advantage of providing regional value added services while understanding and serving local customer needs. Enterprises can expect to reap full benefits at each of the data centres under the Alliance including best practices, high reliability and security.

The data centres within the Alliance will meet Tier III and above standards as stated by the Data Centre Tier Classification from Uptime Institute.  They will also be using ISO27001 as reference for the information security management system (ISMS), a quality management system (QMS) as per ISO9001 and an ISO20000 reference for IT Service Management Standard.

Driven by sharp growth in IT services in Asia, the data centre services market is experiencing colossal demand. In Singapore alone, according to an IDC Market Analysis Report, the market size for data centre services is estimated to be US$270M in 2007 and is forecasted to reach US$326M in 2011 at a CAGR of 7%.

“1-Net Singapore is proud to be a member of this Alliance with such established partners in the region.  We see this Alliance as an opportunity to extend our services by providing a comprehensive suite of regional DC solutions to meet the regional business needs of our customers.  We are excited to integrate our strengths with our partners’ and create significantly more energy efficient, secured and reliable cross border data centre services," said Mr. Yow Tau Keon, Managing Director, 1-Net Singapore.

“The formation of this Alliance will allow for borderless connectivity across the region and open up opportunities for our collective customer base to access a wider market. As an operator of carrier neutral data centres focused in growing interconnectivity between service providers, AIMS’ participation in this Alliance will now enable seamless convergence amongst service providers,” said Mr. Gan Te-Shen, Group CEO of The AIMS Asia Group.

“The Alliance not only expands each member’s influence in the data centre services market of the region but also brings customer’s satisfaction to the highest level by the cross-border interconnected data centres, exchanged technologies and quality of services. As one of the first and largest Neutral-carrier Data Services Provider in Vietnam, CMC Telecom see such fascinating project as part of our Data Centre Global Supply Chain strategy,” said Mr. Pham Anh Chien, Chief Executive Officer of CMC Telecom.

“Going forward, TCCT anticipates healthy growth of data centres in multinational market.  Even with our well-known position as Thailand’s leading carrier neutral data centre provider with high level of trust from our oversea clients, TCCT aims to thoroughly strategize the collaboration with our Data Centre Partners in Asia to proactively build the strong Data Centre Regional Networking Community to exchange and enrich Data Centre Knowledge via this Alliance Program. The synergy among our partners in this region will also enable our clients’ mission critical business to better manage their risk via the Cross Border Alternative Disaster Recovery Sites Project,” said Mr. Kosit Suksingha, Managing Director of TCCT.

Software Park Thailand's Director Suwipa Wanasathop said that the “Asian Data Center Alliance” Memorandum Of Understanding among 4 parties -TCCT from Thailand and its partners 1-NET from Singapore, CMC from Vietnam and Aims from Malaysia will help ignite the future of Data Center Business and other areas of IT Industry in Thailand via the exchanging of their expertise.

“IDA welcomes the formation of the data centre alliance as this is in line with our efforts under our Digital Marketplace programme (DMP) to establish a trusted and conducive environment for digital media businesses to securely host, manage and trade digital media assets. Furthermore, we are encouraged to see the alliance focusing on promoting industry best practices and standards as this also aligns well with our efforts to establish best practices and technical standard guidelines to facilitate international digital media asset exchange and trade,” said Ms Tham Ai Chyn, Assistant Chief Executive, Industry and Cluster Development, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Said Mr Yew Sung Pei, Assistant Chief Executive Officer of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, "IE Singapore works closely with Singapore-based ICT companies like 1-Net Singapore to enhance their regional and international partnerships, and expand their presence outside Singapore. 1-Net Singapore was introduced to CMC Telecom during IE Singapore's telecommunications business mission to Hanoi early this year. We are happy to have played a part in matching the two and contributing to this regional partnership. The Data Centre Alliance will allow the companies to complement one another's resources and become a topnotch one-stop hub in providing data centre services to regional customers."

About 1-Net Singapore

1-Net Singapore is a leading infocomm technology solutions provider.

As one of the pioneers of broadband development in Singapore, 1-Net currently manages telco-class Internet Data Centres, along with providing domestic and international connectivity, managed services, managed security and consultancy, and media delivery services.

1-Net is a wholly owned subsidiary of MediaCorp Pte Ltd, Singapore’s leading media company with the most complete range of platforms spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies and digital media.

For more info, please visit www.1-net.com.sg.

About The AIMS Asia Group

The AIMS Asia Group owns and manages carrier-neutral data centre facilities with recent estimates showing that AIMS hosts as much as 30% of ASEAN’s communications traffic making it a choice data centre in this region.

About CMC Telecom

CMC Telecommunication Services Corporation (CMC Telecom) is the member of CMC group, one of the two largest ICT group in Vietnam. CMC Telecom offers the highest quality of Data Services, Telecom Infrastructure Services, Value-added Services and Customer Care Services. CMC Telecom is currently operating one world-class Data Center in Sai Dong, 10 km from centre of Hanoi and is expecting to be the largest Neutral-carrier Data Center Provider in Vietnam by the end of 2009 with the total space of 6000 square metres.

About TCC Technology

T.C.C. Technology Co., Ltd. (TCCT) is Thailand's leading Carrier-Neutral Data Center provider offering commercial managed hosting and infrastructure solutions designed to meet increasing demands for organizations looking to outsource their information technology requirements.  TCCT currently operates two world-class data centers, one at the Empire Tower in downtown Bangkok and the other at Bangna complex in the city's eastern suburbs close to Bangkok's new international airport.

Understanding the necessity for continuous improvement to keep pace with market demands as well as emerging regulatory compliance, TCCT has been developing its internal best practices based on major international standards namely ISO9001:2000, Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), and was the first company in Thailand to achieve certified SAP Adaptive Solution Provider (SAP Hosting certificate) status.  Confirming that TCCT has all required procedures in place and ensuring that the provided solutions are operated properly within controlled environment.

Further information in www.tcc-technology.com

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Issued by Data Centre Alliance

For more information, please contact:

The Right Spin Pte Ltd:

Farena Rahim,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel: (65) 6325 5935

1-Net Singapore:

Anthony Fu,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel: (65) 6357 5687

The AIMS Asia Group (Malaysia):

Shahliza Rafiq,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel: (603) 2031 4988

TCC Technology (Thailand):

Waleeporn Sayasit,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel: (662) 626 0038

CMC Telecom (Vietnam):

Dzung Hoang, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel: (84) 936847430