Focus Malaysia:
Hitachi Sunway featured as one of the players big and strong enough to weather the storm ahead.
Malaysia's data-centre industry - beset by an overcapacity and price cuts - will see further consolidation, with only those competitive and financially strong enough able to weather turbulence ahead.
Multimedia Development Corp Sdn Bhd (MDeC) director of the Digital Enablement division Wan Murdani Wan Mohamad expects more industry consolidation.
"We are seeing larger companies starting to buy over smaller companies, to grow faster. In the next five years we will see more and more acquisitions, and partnerships between companies that have different value propositions," he says.
Notable transactions include the acquisition of Free Net Business Solutions Sdn Bhd (Freenet) and a 30% stake in Powerware Systems Sdn Bhd by Hitachi Sunway Information Systems last year.
Freenet provides data centre-managed services through three ISO-certified Tier-3-compliant data centres in Kuala Lumpur and Cyberjaya. Powerware Systems focuses on data centre consultancy, design and construction.
Established in April 2013, Hitachi Sunway is a joint venture between Hitachi Systems Ltd and Sunway Technology, providing IT services in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
