Hong Kong skyline to make room for high-rise data centres

A new era of high-rise data centres has arrived in land-constrained Hong Kong, which could help lead more online businesses to locate and grow in the city.

PCCW Solutions, the information-technology services arm of Richard Li Tzar-kai's flagship company, yesterday launched its largest data centre - a 16-storey facility converted from an old industrial building in Kwai Chung.

"We see the pipeline [of customers] building up in the next two years. That is why we are investing in redeveloping old industrial buildings into data centres," George Fok Yiu-cheung, the managing director of PCCW Solutions, told the South China Morning Post.

Fok said building vertical data centre infrastructure on converted industrial sites provided a quick way to meet rising demand for the facilities, especially from financial institutions, multinationals and internet firms doing e-commerce and other "cloud" activities.

Buying land and constructing the building would require at least 40 months, while a conversion project would need about 10 months, he said.

PCCW Solutions, which posted HK$1.46 billion in first-half revenue, has identified 13 old industrial buildings, out of 326 sites listed by the government for redevelopment, where fast-track data-centre conversion projects can be done.