Supporting Go-Online MSMEs, Surge This Year Builds 580 Edge Data Centers On Java Island

Surge will build an edge data center at every train station on the island of Java (photo: Jordan Harrison/unspalsh)

JAKARTA - PT Solusi Sinergi Digital Tbk (WIFI) or Surge is preparing to build thousands of edge data centers that will be spread across Java. This facility was built to support MSMEs going online.

The company stated that they will carry the concept of an edge data center that is closer to the user's location. As an initial stage, the company targets to present 580 edge data centers by the end of 2021. This development will support the company's mission in digital transformation.

“The growth of startups, entrepreneurship, and the growth of the digital economy cannot be separated from the support of connectivity and other digital infrastructure. Moreover, the growth of the digital economy in the future will be greatly supported by MSMEs, startups and people outside the Metropolitan City," said CEO of Surge Hermansjah Haryono, Thursday, July 1.

Hermansjah said that the thousands of data centers will be placed in a number of train stations and Village Unit Cooperatives (KUD) warehouses spread across the island of Java. The first two locations include Manggarai Station and Cikarang Station and can start operating in August 2021.

The expansion of fiber optic cooperation with PT KAI as well as the digitization of INKUD will utilize station and warehouse locations as edge data centers as Point of Presence (POP).

Consisting of 580 train stations and 1000 KUD warehouses, the edge data center Surge will have two types of sizes, namely 2x3 meters and 4x6 meters. The data center contains data rooms with a total capacity of 2-20 racks (server racks) and a total electrical power capacity of 100 kWh to 300 kWh.

The construction of this Tier 2 class edge data center will have a backup power source equipped with a backup generator and Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS) or an uninterrupted power supply.

In addition to being supported by optical fiber Surge in addition to the railroad being built, this edge data center can also be used as an Internet Exchange (IX) with Content Delivery Network (CDN) technology. CDN technology can be utilized to support better and more stable connectivity for OTT (Over The Top) operators in Indonesia and end-customers.

"By becoming an IX equipped with a CDN edge data center, Surge will facilitate local data exchange, as well as streaming access to stable media and entertainment applications with a better experience, without a lot of buffering or lagging and of course an affordable price," explained Hermansjah.

Surge's Director of Business Development Martha Rebecca added, how the construction of an edge data center with a colocation model will provide direct access to users such as MSMEs who want to go online or local startups can rent racks at the edge of the Surge data center.

"Previously, this service facility could only be found in big cities or industrial areas. In addition, users can also place their devices or servers that are directly connected to the internet with Surge optical fiber which has a large capacity band with a maximum of 15,000 Gbps," he said. Martha.

Edge data center locations built closer to users will provide a much more stable connection, lower latency in day-to-day business operations. Surge will also provide cloud services with virtual private servers or servers without physical use of the edge data center Surge.

"With these various services, users in small cities can get many benefits at a more affordable price which is certainly no less competitive with the infrastructure available in big cities," added Martha.