PLDT currently operates six data centers and will open four more until 2017. It will soon open two new VITRO Data Centers located in the Makati central business district and Clark special economic zone, and plans to put up its first data center in Mindanao to be built in Davao by next month while its data center in Cebu will be expanded by next year.

“The explosion of digital technologies and platforms is changing the way we live and work.  Enterprises and consumers can only fully experience and benefit from the digital economy if the country has a solid foundation for its digital infrastructure. Thus, the PLDT Group continues to invest heavily in building this foundation to support a data-driven future,” said PLDT EVP and ePLDT President and CEO Eric R. Alberto.

In its network of VITRO Data Centers, PLDT digital enterprise enabler ePLDT operates data centers located in Pasig, Subic, and Cebu that serve large enterprises, particularly banking and financial services, business process outsourcing, and online gaming firms.

Meanwhile, ePLDT unit IP Converge (IPC) operates three more data center facilities located in Makati, Bonifacio Global City, and its biggest in Sucat, Parañaque, that primarily serve small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Data centers are critical facilities that house digital information of enterprises and government agencies.  These facilities are designed to meet international standards to safeguard crucial information from cybersecurity threats, natural and man-made disasters, and ensure continuous operations.

“Security is a top priority in building data centers.  This requires implementing multiple-layers of security, and designing a very sturdy structure. It takes expertise and a lot of resources to keep these facilities secure against a wide range of threats.  All these measures are needed to make these facilities suitable for companies that need to outsource their ICT and digital requirements to data centers,” Alberto pointed out.

Aside from multi-level security, other critical components of a data center are telco diversity, precision cooling system, uninterrupted power supply and ample space on solid ground.

This highly available and reliable infrastructure provides enterprise customers with the ideal environment within which they can collocate or host their IT platforms, instead of building complex and expensive structures on their own. The subscription-based leasing scheme also presents a more commercially viable option that allows companies to scale up as IT workload demand increases, without the need for huge capital investments.

"These advantages compel businesses to consider third party data centers such as VITRO, as they expand their IT capacity, refresh their aging data center, or mobilize their cloud-based initiatives," Alberto said.

ePLDT was the first to put up a purposely-built data center in the country with the VITRO Data Center in Pasig which opened in 2000 with a rack capacity of 1,800.  By end-2017, the PLDT Group would have invested about P10 billion in data centers nationwide.