Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) has established detailed requirements for the Next Generation Data Centre (NGDC) that it plans to build at Hong Kong’s Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate.

The centre’s total floor area has been increased to 31,400 square metres from about 13,300 square metres in the preliminary plan to make maximum use of the allowable plot ratio.

The estimated cost, which covers land premium and costs for construction, relocation and technology upgrades, as well as the initial facilities and office fittings, is approximately $1 billion over the next three years.  HKEx plans to fund the project with internal resources.

"Technology and data centre operations play a critical role at HKEx," HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li said.  “A fully-built data centre equipped with modernised facilities and infrastructure will accommodate our new strategic initiatives such as co-location and hosting services.”

HKEx is currently evaluating the level and nature of services it will offer. Costs for providing new services will be determined after the evaluation process has been completed.  

The NGDC will be built to meet the highest level of resilience, targeting at top-level Tier 4 data centre requirements, and the LEED Gold standard, which is part of an internationally recognised green building certification system.

There are no material changes to the data centre project timetable.  HKEx still aims to move the primary data centre for its securities market to the centre in the middle of 2012.

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