PLDT, through its wholly-owned ICT subsidiary ePLDT, sustains its data center dominance in the country as it further invests in increasing its total rack capacity. The Philippines’ largest fully integrated telco continues to add more racks, currently at 74% total rack utilization, in its expansive network of VITRO data centers.

Following a surge in demand coming from local and global enterprises, the Group recently reported that it has added 612 racks. “We will continue to add more to ensure we are ahead of the demand not only for local enterprises, but also for hyperscalers. This supports the reinforced push of the government, particularly the Department of Trade and Industry, for hyperscaler data centers as the second coming of the BPO industry,” PLDT and Smart President and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio shared during a recent briefing.

Currently operating 10 VITRO Data Centers, ePLDT has 4,541 of 6,133 ready racks already in service. The ICT arm plans to further expand the capacity of three of its major VITRO data centers located in Makati, Paranaque, and Clark. 

“We are currently expanding capacity in three of our existing data center sites and building our 11th Vitro Data Center in Sta. Rosa. The target is to add 1,500 racks by the end of the 4th quarter of 2022 and 1,500 racks by the end of 2023. So all told, you’re looking at an additional 3,000 available racks from now until the end of next year,” said ePLDT President Viboy Genuino.

The PLDT Group also announced earlier the buildout of its biggest VITRO data center, a premier hyperscaler facility in Sta. Rosa, Laguna with a power capacity scalable to 100 Megawatts. This facility will further fortify its capacity by another 4,500 racks, equal to the total racks already being serviced by all of its data centers combined.

“We are looking forward to opening our VITRO Santa Rosa Hyperscale Data Center. If you look at enterprises in the Philippines, there is a very clear need to digitize their operations in order to drive business agility. This way they can deliver better customer experiences to their end-users. Having a digital channel is a way to do that. Once customers adapt to that, it will further fuel the amount of hyperscalers and enterprise customers in need of our data center solutions,” added Genuino.

VITRO Sta. Rosa combines sustainable aesthetics with power, efficiency

The VITRO Sta. Rosa facility, set to be PLDT’s biggest data center once it becomes operational by end of next year, is being built to be an energy-efficient and eco-conscious facility. Its Tier-3 certified and Tier 4-ready design incorporates sustainable operations and aesthetics into its construction, consistent to the compliance requirements of LEED and minimizing impact to the environment.

The PLDT Group earlier announced that it has partnered with award-winning engineering firm RED Engineering for the build of VITRO Sta. Rosa, anchoring on the best sustainable practices and energy efficiency for the design of the first-of-its-kind facility in the Philippines.

Among its initial sustainability initiatives are construction programs for monitoring and conservation of fuel and water usage, use of solar powered lighting reducing the dependency on fuel, optimization of natural lighting, passive cooling insulation cladding to regulate thermal and acoustic insulation, and use and re-use of excess and scrap materials reducing waste impact such as aluminum, steel, and glass.

PLDT intends to implement manpower programs from hiring and training of local manpower, enabling the local community to be skilled talents.

Consistent with the installation of solar energy solutions in selected PLDT facilities, the Sta. Rosa data center will also use solar in its roofdeck to provide supplementary clean power to the building.

“We want to be more productive and efficient, and a lot of initiatives that are happening in our group-wide transformation are focused on those areas. We try to improve not only how we serve our customers, but also how we can make PLDT the best place to work and be industry-leading in terms of operational excellence,” said Panlilio.

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