SIJORI Cloud & Datacenter Convention 2025

An industry analyst perspective on the shift from hyperscale cloud to AI infrastructure. We look more closely at the trends leading up to the first AI infrastructure wave as well as the implications that DeepSeek had on our sector, how hyperscalers are adapting to this new paradigm shift in terms of strategy and capital allocation, data centre capacity shifts across the APAC region and identifying where the potential growth markets are.

As the demands of artificial intelligence intensify, so does the need for specialized infrastructure. The SIJORI Growth Triangle—comprising Singapore, Johor, and Batam—presents a unique opportunity to develop a seamless, cross-border AI ecosystem.
This session explores the strategic advantage of distributing AI workloads across the region:
• High-performance, cost-efficient AI training hosted in Johor and Batam, where power, space, and land are more abundant.
• Low-latency, inference-ready infrastructure anchored in Singapore, enabling rapid deployment and real-time applications.
• A unified economic zone poised to deliver a coordinated, scalable architecture tailored for the future of AI.
Can SIJORI become the blueprint for regional AI infrastructure? This discussion will examine the technical, regulatory, and economic factors that could turn this vision into a reality.

This session explores the strategic considerations, operational challenges, and design innovations involved in running a cohesive, cross-border data centre footprint in SIJORI. Key focus areas include:
• Regulatory and policy fragmentation — how operators navigate differing compliance, energy, and land-use frameworks
• Latency and network architecture — designing for ultra-low latency interconnects between sites across the strait
• Talent, power, and sustainability — optimizing resource allocation across borders
• Disaster recovery and BCP — how SIJORI enables regional redundancy and diversification
• Emerging roles of Batam and Johor as overflow hubs for Singapore’s capacity-constrained market

As the region looks to become more interconnected — and potentially interdependent — this session examines how data centre operators can leverage SIJORI to build not just facilities, but a resilient digital ecosystem that spans nations.

Along with the surge of AI data center infrastructure demands, data center industry is facing unprecedented challenges, not only with agile DC construction but data center operation. This session will highlight how to prepare future-proofing data center operation technology to cope with current and upcoming data center operation challenges; Liquid cooling environment, mega-scale DC operation, shortage of skilled operators, AI technology adoption, and more.

In this keynote, leading GPU MNC shares its global perspective and strategic insights on designing AI-optimized data centres for the unique conditions of Southeast Asia.

From high-density GPU clusters and scalable architecture to energy-efficient cooling and edge-ready deployments, this session explores the critical components of an AI-first infrastructure strategy. Discover how NVIDIA is collaborating with hyperscalers, operators, and governments to shape the next generation of data centres — purpose-built to fuel Southeast Asia’s AI ambitions while navigating local challenges in power, talent, and sustainability

As AI workloads scale exponentially, the demands on data center infrastructure are shifting from traditional compute models to high-performance, low-latency, and sustainable systems. This keynote and fireside chat with Dan Madrigal will provide insight into the future of data centers in the AI era.

Global tariffs and trade tensions are reshaping the digital infrastructure landscape — but is Southeast Asia facing a slowdown, or poised to accelerate even further? This session examines how shifting geopolitics are impacting supply chains, investment flows, and construction strategies across the region, while uncovering new opportunities for Southeast Asia to strengthen its role as a resilient, high-growth data centre hub.

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping data center operations and strategy, acting both as a growth engine and a new source of vulnerabilities. On one hand, AI is driving the data center boom—powering cloud and hyperscale expansion, automating operations, optimizing energy use, and strengthening cybersecurity defenses. On the other, it introduces complex new challenges: surging power and cooling demands, accelerated equipment wear, increased exposure to cyber risks, and environmental sustainability concerns.

This session will examine the dual-edged impact of AI on data centers, exploring both its transformative benefits and emerging threats.

Singapore, a prominent data center hub with over 70 facilities and approximately 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, is at a crossroads. As the nation accelerates its ambitions to become an AI leader and prioritizes sustainability, the traditional data center model faces unprecedented challenges. The explosive growth of artificial intelligence, the looming potential of quantum computing, and increasingly stringent sustainability requirements are collectively pushing data centers to the brink of an operational paradigm shift – entailing necessary improvements in energy efficiency, water conservation, and cooling technologies.

This panel will explore how these converging forces are reshaping data center design and operations. With AI and quantum workloads driving unprecedented power and cooling demands, can innovative approaches to resource management, next-generation wastewater solutions, and operational optimizations bridge the gap? As environmental regulations tighten and resource constraints grow, are conventional facilities on the brink of obsolescence, or can they adapt to meet the evolving technological landscape?

If sustainability concerns are not addressed, data centres will negatively impact climate change. This presentation provides guidance to owners, developers, operators, and consultants on reducing the carbon and environmental impact of data centres. Key areas of focus include Embodied Carbon, Operational Carbon, Biodiversity, Circularity, Energy Export and Reuse, and Water Efficiency.

Hydronic system with water chiller and chilled water terminal unit is the most popular cooling system nowadays in sizable data center. However, to achieve a better PUE, a hydronic system has reached its bottleneck. At the same time, a hydronic system is limiting the profitability of a data center. To move forward, it’s time to find out a proven cooling system that is only improving the energy consumption but also bringing loads of advantages to the data center.

Design sets the blueprint – but operations determine the outcome. As sustainability becomes a non-negotiable in data center development, this panel explores how design and day-to-day operations must work hand in hand to achieve real environmental impact.

From energy-efficient layouts and low-carbon materials to airflow tuning, equipment maintenance, and data-driven monitoring – sustainable success depends on a continuous loop between those who build and those who run. Hear from experts across design, engineering, and facility management on how they’re aligning strategy, execution, and culture to drive measurable improvements in energy use, water conservation, and emissions reduction.

Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the urban energy transition—delivering high energy density, rapid response, and scalable storage essential for decarbonizing grids, managing peak loads, and integrating renewables. Their compact footprint makes them ideal for dense city environments, from high-rise buildings to underground substations.

Yet, with every transformative technology comes new risks. As lithium-ion systems are increasingly embedded in critical infrastructure, fire safety becomes a non-negotiable priority. This keynote draws from real-world incidents and leading-edge research to explore best practices in system design, zoning, ventilation, thermal containment, and emergency response. It also examines how standards and regulations are evolving to keep pace with deployment.

In March 2024, Saber Interactive shattered expectations by supporting over one million concurrent players during the global launch of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide—all without a single outage or performance hiccup. This session, led by Gcore, peels back the curtain on the end-to-end digital infrastructure that made “powering chaos” possible.

In this session GCore will share how a hybrid bare-metal and multi-CDN topology delivered sub-50 ms latency in 100+ regions, how dynamic autoscaling kept resources aligned with real-time demand surges, and how multi-layer DDoS defenses protected the platform under peak load. Through candid post-mortems and architectural deep-dives, you’ll leave armed with practical strategies for building resilient, high-performance game services that can withstand even the most frenzied launch day.

This session focuses on how banks and financial institutions must rethink their data center strategies to meet the infrastructure needs of AI. Key themes include planning for scalable power availability, adopting hybrid liquid and air cooling to manage thermal loads, and reconfiguring space to accommodate high-density racks in both on-prem and colocation. We’ll explore how modernizing physical infrastructure—not just IT stacks—is critical for enabling AI transformation at scale while meeting uptime, compliance, and sustainability goals.