As investment agencies worldwide turn their attention to promoting the benefits of their locations for building datacenters or outsourcing, a new player in south-east Asia - Iskandar - is beginning to consolidate its position in this increasingly competitive arena.

Next month, government, businesses and international experts will gather in Johor for a regional enterprise datacenter conference (www.datacloudasia.com) and Datuk Ismailbin Ibrahim, CEO of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority will make its claim as the next big datacenter opportunity for the expanding sector in south-east Asia.

The event will be officiated by Dato' Sri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Minister of Communication and Multimedia Malaysia. In addition, Dato' Sri Idris Jala, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and CEO of Performance Management Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) is speaking on Malaysia's journey in the Economic Transformation Program and how  datacenters are positioned as one of the sectors identified to contribute to the national gross income of Malaysia.

Johor's geographic position at the tip of Malaysia on the opposite side of the Singapore Straits provides easy access from the island state and importantly offers a wealth of land. In support of its vision, the conference will hear from representatives of operating companies to discuss datacenter deployments, fiber connectivity, the critical issue of energy supply and from the government agency MDeC responsible for driving inward investment in the tech sector.

The conference to be held in Iskandar, Johor on 8-9 April, and is enhanced by the presence of a range of international experts including Markku Lepisto, Technology Evangelist, APAC, Amazon Web Services, Christophe Maisonnave, Data Center Facilities Strategies Services Manager, Hewlett Packard, Shinya Kukita, Chief Engineer, Global Business Unit, NEC Corporation, John Murray, Chief Executive Officer, Brunei International Gateway, Gautam Saxena, Director, Head of Asia Media & Telecom, Merrill Lynch and Zou Xiaoteng, Chief Engineer of Data Center Infrastructure Solution, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd as well as other experts. The event will also host a special Finance and Investment symposium.

A key objective is to provide a current assessment of the datacenter sector in the region, as well as new business opportunities, how far the sector has moved in valuations, current and future risk, and forward outlook for IT infrastructure assets. It covers cloud, a comparative analysis of data governance across the region, finance and investment, new technological innovation such as modular datacenters, and a special panel on enterprise criteria in selecting sites for datacenter locations. Datuk Ismail Bin Ibrahim, CEO, Iskandar Regional Development Authority, Iskandar Regional Development Authority will also present the vision for the region.

"The event is important not only to Malaysia but also to the South East Asia region as Iskandar increasingly takes a position as an alternative hub for hosting and colocation. Combined with the existing Data Centre hub in Cyberjaya, Malaysia is poised to be the regional hub for cloud and content services," commented Dato' Yasmin Mahmood, CEO, MDeC. "Bringing together users and business leaders with an expert academy of speakers, the event also has a content rich agenda and high business networking values."

"This is a much needed opportunity for datacenter businesses and investors in south-east Asia to assess opportunities outside of Singapore, so far the dominant market in the region," commented Steve Wallage, Managing Director, BroadGroup Consulting and chairman of the conference. "Growth in the datacenter sector has been sustained globally and our forecasts suggest tremendous expansion in south-east Asia in the coming years. Johor's proximity to Singapore and the availability of land certainly presents a powerful proposition."

Designed for regional and international enterprises who are invited to attend the conference on a complimentary basis, the organizers will also host tour of Johor and the proposed datacenter sites and meet government and agency officials during their stay. Please enquire at enquiries@broad-group.com for tickets.