Digital Realty Trust Upbeat on APAC Success

Digital Realty Trust entered the market in the early part of 2010 into Singapore, and we of course announced the acquisition of the Jurong asset in late 2010, in November. It's been about 6-7 months now. We've made excellent progress, so we're right on track with our goals. In fact, I would like to believe that we're actually overachieving at the moment. And hopefully we'll continue that pace for the next few years in this market. We see the Asia-Pacific region as a high-growth region for us over the next coming few years. There's been obviously a huge pent-up demand in the last few years in this part of the world, and we're now starting to see that crystallize. So we consider the region as one being very important to our business. And number 2, we see Singapore as being a key hub for that. So it was a very strategic acquisition and a market entry for us in this region to acquire the Jurong asset and to build a base and to actually develop our brand awareness to the region as we continue to expand geographically in the other markets in Asia-Pac. Digital Realty Trust's value proposition is quite unique as the largest wholesale provider of data center space. We have a very broad set of customers, so we appeal to almost customers in any segment, and most people that perceive us to have competition from certain sections of the industry, most often we find that those perceived competitors are actually our customers. And so that diverse base allows us to address a much bigger section of the market, and we think we're pretty well positioned, A, with the asset, but B, with our value proposition and what we have to offer this region, which hasn't been offered before. So complete transparency, a one-stop shop, a trusted name that's had operational expertise and a track record of uptime and reliability when we maintain and manage our facilities. These sorts of value propositions are something that we bring from our global market base into Singapore and into the region. Right, so the do-it-yourself model is obviously on the decline. We see that through research we have done, targeted focus groups, and that's been true in the US and Europe and will also find its way into the Asia-Pac region. The technology complexity, the demands on the business for just-in-time inventory You know, the scarcity of capital. All of these are contributing factors, no different to what's happened in the US and Europe a few years ago. We see exactly the same drivers in Asia-Pac, and those are the reasons why when it comes to non-core functions like the data center asset, we see companies now tending towards outsourcing, and that will be the driver that contributes to our growth in the region. We take green very seriously in our business. We're one of the primary adopters of green standards globally. We've built the first LEED Platinum data center in the US and continue to do a number of LEED facilities. We co-authored the BREEAM standard in the UK and we continue to develop BREEAM-certified facilities. And in Singapore, this particular asset in Jurong that we've just acquired is a GreenMark Gold-certified data center, one of only 2 in Singapore. And that was one of several attractions for us to acquire this asset. But on top of that, we will overlay our own processes and procedures, we'll overlay our own build standards, and we're looking to adopt the same LEED certification for this facility and what we build out in Singapore. And with the green standards being developed by the government, we will of course ensure that we get certified to those green standards in Singapore. And continue to provide thought leadership in the industry in Singapore and the larger Asia-Pac region.