Google boosts Asian presence with data center in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Internet search giant Google started the construction of a 120-million-U.S. dollar data center in Singapore on Thursday to boost its presence in the region.

It will be the company's first data center in Southeast Asia and will be operational by 2013.

The center in Singapore, the company's Asia-Pacific headquarters, will be the third of its kind in Asia. The other two are in China's Hong Kong and Taiwan, costing 300 million dollars and 100 million dollars, respectively.

Google has six data centers in the United States and two in Europe, respectively.

Julian Persaud, managing director of Google Southeast Asia, said speed and reliability are critically important in bringing Internet services to the users.

"If you look at Southeast Asia in particular, it's one of the fastest growing regions in the world for users coming online, so it's important that we keep up with users and think ahead and make sure we can deliver those services quickly," he said.

The new data center will include environmental features such as operation at relatively higher temperatures.