The Philippines should be a strategic hyperscaler hub in the region, PLDT Chief Revenue Officer Alfredo S. Panlilio said.
Panlilio said that as the telco is also building capacities to bring hyperscalers into the country. Hyperscalers” are massive companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon that dominate the public cloud and the cloud service sector, expanding their businesses into related verticals.
However, cloud dominance is just one aspect of hyperscaler operations. Their true end is to develop infrastructure supporting billions of users.
As data becomes the driving force in the technology world, hyperscalers now account for most of the spending on data center hardware and software.
"Ultimately, our vision is to make the Philippines a strategic hyperscaler hub in the region," Panlilio reiterated .
The pandemic has done much to accelerate the demand for data, both local and global.
In the space of 12 months, the pandemic has brought forward the transition from physical shopping to e-commerce by an estimated five years, he noted.
Banking has also gone digital. Payment and financial processing can be done in a click of a finger.
Even workplaces have transformed, alongside the entertainment needs of customers.
"In 2022 as much as 30 percent of the workforce will continue to work from home multiple days a week," he went on.
And as people stay home for entertainment, broadband usage across the country will rise exponentially.
To address these growing data needs, PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. are investing between P88 billion and P92 billion in capital expenditures in 2021. Currently, telcos are likewise ramping up the rollout of Smart's 5G network nationwide, which now has over 2,600 sites.