Mitsubishi in data centre joint venture
JAPAN: Mitsubishi Corporation has entered into a joint venture with US real estate investment company Digital Realty Trust to deliver data centre solutions in Japan.
A data centre operating and holding company MC Digital Realty will be established on a 50/50 basis with an initial capital of over JPY400m. Using Digital Realty’s Saito facility in Osaka and Mitsubishi Corporation’s Mitaka facility in Tokyo, jointly worth approximately JPY40bn, as seed assets, MC Digital Realty aims to manage over JPY200bn worth of assets by 2022 through the acquisition and development of new and existing property.
According to the companies involved, the data centre operating company will seek to provide clients with robust facilities, high level physical security, steady electricity supply, air conditioning and other key requirements.
Digital Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust specialising in carrier-neutral data centres and providing colocation and peering services.
In Japan, IT vendors, carriers and financial institutions have tended to own their data centres, creating a large number of small data centres are scattered across the country. By contrast, in the US, where Digital Realty Trust is based, and in Europe, where the company also has extensive facilities, there has been a shift to high-capacity third-party data centre providers, which provide data centre capacity as a service. The same trend is expected to take place in Japan.
