IP Converge to put up 3rd data center

MANILA, Philippines—Listed technology firm IP Converge Data Center Inc. may start construction of its third data center in the country, which would serve both local and foreign clients next year.

The company opened its second data center at Fort Bonifacio late last year but less than six months after starting operations, the company said it had already surpassed its targets for the facility.

IP Converge has yet to release its financial results for 2011, but company president and CEO Rene Huergas said the newly opened facility resulted in a significant increase in revenue year-on-year.

“We have already passed our targets. When we opened the site, we were just targeting filling up 40 percent by the end of 2012. But we will likely end up with 90 percent by December,” Huergas said.

“We are actually talking about expanding already,” he said in an interview. “By the end of the year, we will be the biggest data center provider in the country, surpassing the data center subsidiaries of the country’s top telecom firms,” he said.

Through its two data centers in the country—the other being the one in the Makati Central Business District-IP Converge offers various IT services hosted over the Internet.

These include distributed denial of service attack protection, customer relationship management solutions, financial solutions, disaster recovery and business continuity services, unified communications and messaging solutions, and other ancillary products and services.

He said the current facility at the Fort Bonifacio, built at a cost of about P200 million, would be expanded to double its existing capacity.

Huergas said the third data center would be the biggest project the company had undertaken so far. The company is considering building its third site outside Metro Manila, most likely in Laguna or Cavite.  He said construction might start as early as next year and would be completed before 2016.

IP Converge’s revenue amounted to P418.76 million as of the end of September last year, up 10.3 percent or P39 million from year-ago level. The increase in revenue was recorded before the opening of IP Converge’s data center in Taguig.

Huergas said the new facility would “double” the company’s business in 2012. “We are very excited and confident. Based on our performance in the first quarter and our projections going in to the second quarter, we are on track to achieving that,” he said.