 Welcome to JSA TV and JSA podcasts, the newsroom for telecom and data center professionals. I'm Barb Mitchell and joining me today is Bromsing, CEO of BDX data centers. Broms, so good to have you back on JSA TV. It's been a little while I feel like and we have so much to talk about. I think the first thing is that you guys are on the move, right? So, and I mean literally and figuratively I suppose but tell us about that. You've announced recently that you're moving your headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore. Tell us why the move, why now? Well, hi Barb. First of all, yes, it's been a while. Good to see you again. It's ease of business, Barb. Singapore, you know, eventually just gets you because it's so easy to work from here. And we all as a team decided that if we have to grow in this region that this was the place to do it from. And it's not just the travel, which is by the way, critical, right? I mean, especially in these times of COVID. So I was in San Francisco, December and I had to get back home to Hong Kong and I couldn't because the restriction was so onerous that if they found me positive in their tests, that's it, I would be isolated, et cetera, et cetera. Whereas for Singapore, I had to just hop on a plane to call it a vaccinated lane. So everyone on the flight is vaccinated. You come to Singapore, you get tested, you test yourself seven days and all the time you can go out, you can work. And if you're negative all seven days, you're off to the races. So that was, I tell you, very important, especially in this time of COVID, like I said, but not just that, also the ecosystem, right? I mean, today the talent pool is all here. For the engineers, we need the mechanical, the electrical engineers, the program managers, the architects, they're all here. The vendors are all here. Let's not forget that, right? I mean, we need the vendors for all our facilities. If you're building across the region, we have these global MSAs and all the large vendors are here. So that was key. And as a kid, I used to always wonder why, in Mumbai, Bombay, where I grew up, why all the traders of a particular commodity would be lined up on one street? Why all the silver guys would be in this street and the gold guys in this street? And that's because that was the ecosystem. That's the buzz they created. Well, guess what? For the same reason, data centers have congregated in Singapore. And if you look at, you know, between, between, let's say you fly from Europe, right? You fly, you hit London, Paris, Amsterdam, all big hubs, you hit Frankfurt, all the big hubs, then nothing. Till you come to Singapore, nothing. Singapore is the next largest hub. So, you know, this is a place to be, Bob. Yeah. And outside of ease of doing business and proximity to the resources that you need to tap into, it's good for your customers too, right? I mean, just everything that's happening in Singapore and whatnot, it's good for them as well. Well, it depends, right? I mean, yes, data centers are very local, you know? So when you talk, oh, you mean the hyperscale customers? Sure. We're a cloud enterprise. Yeah. So enterprise customers, yeah, though that wasn't the reason, our customers in Indonesia will be served from Indonesia, the ones in Singapore, Singapore, Hong Kong will be always served from Hong Kong. But it was the, it was the travel, the, especially in the times of COVID, it was the ecosystem. But very importantly, also the government, right? In Singapore, the government has made it easy for you, the rule of law, everything here is at least from a BDX perspective, it's the way we like it, yeah? And then you have a government that is engaged with you. These guys will sit with you, they'll debate with you, they'll, you know, you can discuss policy with them. And then if your argument is logical, it prevails. We've been pleasantly surprised in Singapore, more so in many other countries, where we have to, you know, go through, things are a lot less clear. In Singapore, everything is clear, it's very clear. Doing business here is, the clarity is brilliant. So it's that ease, I know the moratorium and stuff, I guess you'll ask me about that. It has created a level of work we have to put into it. But it's clear, dealing with this government, this thing nebulous about it, that's a lot. And that's why, by the way, just a little digression, that's why have you noticed all the divisive players will either be in Sydney or, you know, so either Australia, Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore. Why, because of the clarity of law, right? Right, yeah. And I mean, you mentioned the moratorium, obviously that was probably gonna be the next thing that I asked you about. But actually, so we know about that, we know about that there was a moratorium, it's recently been lifted and, but I think you're right. You know, it's, along with that comes real clarity about what's required by new players in the market. But also I think it's an opportunity for us to talk a little bit about just BDX and how you're approaching sustainability as a whole. I know there's a number of initiatives underway by you and your team. And can you talk about that? I mean, 360 views, the first one that comes to mind, I think we could talk for days about that. It's quite a hefty topic. But can you give us the sort of the headline on that? Of course. So, you know, we're not in the sustainability business, we're in the data center business, right? But you can't escape it. We're such the data center industry is such a guzzler of power. And we have all collectively got such a bad rap because of that, that we are very aware of this and make sure that sustainability is stopped on our list. More so in Singapore, where you can't get away from it, right? I mean, these guys have gone and committed to a carbon neutral Singapore by 2030. Now, other countries have also made commitments, but I have yet to see a country outside of Europe that is so dead serious about meeting its commitment. So, you know what, guys? We have a moratorium and we'll live with it because we are just one of the little pieces in the jigsaw puzzle for Singapore to meet its carbon neutral commitments. So we too have committed internally that we will be carbon neutral at least in Singapore by 2030. And for that, we are then tying up with our partner companies like Hexa, which is owned by our majority shareholder. And who is now laying out solar plants, et cetera, in the neighborhood, and there's a bid. Singapore is inviting bids over a tender to import renewable power into Singapore. So these guys are gonna do it, we'll sign the PPA with them. So on that part, making sure that we are carbon neutral alongside Singapore by 2030, our operations. So that is requiring a lot of work from our side, okay? Now, you mentioned 360 view. 360 view was my, one of the reasons I'm excited about it, besides it being such a brilliant product is that it actually was my, you know how people convert to becoming vegans? Is something happens in their life? Well, 360 view happened in my life. And I tell you, before this, Barb, I was, you know, sustainably, yeah, yeah, yeah, data centers, we got to do it, we have guzzling power, we have to show commitment. I was never an eco warrior. And that's a very strong word, right? I'm still, I'm still not there yet. But 360 view converted me. And it started off as a DCIM, the data center information management system, right? So that's how it was built. And we were running it for three years as a DCIM. And then the guys go in, it's got a very awesome power management features. So they built around it, they built sustainability, carbon accounting around it, connected it to a blockchain. So now you can, besides knowing your carbon footprint, you can actually make your greenhouse gas submissions to a carbon registry or a carbon blockchain. So when I saw all this, I started reading them because they would keep saying stuff I didn't understand. Which happens all the time though. But this was, I said, so I started reading up. And I read up on sustainability and that was a wow moment for me. Like, oh my God, do these kids, these colleagues of mine, do they have any idea about the nut they have cracked? And apparently they did. You see, what I discovered was that the amount of fraud and gaming that was taking place in the carbon industry was phenomenal. You had something called, what is the word for it? Additionality. So there's something called additionality. That means, Barb, your carbon credit should be earned. In other words, it should actually be the reason why greenhouse gas to that extent was reduced to one. So really one ton of carbon should come out of the atmosphere because of your carbon credit. And if you had not done that work, if you had not spent the time, effort, energy on that carbon credit, then that carbon would still be there. So that people were working their way around it and then they were doing reselling. We just, you know, they would take a carbon credit sell to you, so you can offset. And then they would sell to me and I can offset and there was no tracking. All of this was because the, I call it the first mile. The carbon registry is here and the carbon footprint is here. To get from here to here, you need a consultant. And that consultant is paid by this guy. And so there's such a comfort of interest, right? And that's where all this is happening. 360 View addresses this in such an elegant way by automating the first mile and then connecting it to a blockchain. And now you have end to end visibility it was just brilliant what these guys have done. And so we are really besides using it for ourselves, we're giving it away. So I want to make money from the DCM. Hey, you know, Bob, you've got a data center, please use my 360 View. I'll make money out of it, right? But if you want to do sustainability, I don't want to take it, take it, just do it. So that is that 360 View. Better convert out of me. Hopefully it'll make one for all of you too, let's see. Well, yeah, and it shows sort of the passion you have behind the project, right? That you want people to hear about, to know about it, to use it. And ultimately to fix something that in some ways is broken, but also so important for our industry but even beyond our industry, right? For the world. Well said, yeah. That's what it's all about, yeah. Yeah. So I feel like we could do, like I said, we could do a series of these, because there's so much, you guys have been so busy and there's so many great things happening. It's exciting that you're moving to Singapore. It's exciting that you have 360 View and some partnerships I know underway and you were doing some expansions last year in Singapore as well. I think, and also I wanted to note to people that are watching this, that what you were just talking about, about 360 View, you've actually written some recent articles on that so people can find out more information on it because it's a very interesting topic. And so we'll try to link to those so people can sort of dig to find more of what you've written on the topic. But I think that in the spirit of time we'll leave that there and come back and we can do another round of these. I know that you also are part of the greener data initiative that's happening amongst the industry and we'll have a chance to hear more from you then as well. But anything just in a closing word, anything that you really wanted to share with us that's sort of upcoming here today. Well, what's upcoming is, I think our initiatives in the region are all largely now green. Our basis of design, this education we've had on sustainability means that sustainability is now built into our basis of design. This is our easy barb and I was just talking to our team today by the end, by the time we are done in Indonesia, for example, we would have spent a billion dollars in building out new data centers, buying some of them. And now that will include converting these to sustainable facilities. And that is the big thing we are doing. So anything I want to leave you with and the audience with us our passion towards sustainability and how not just in Singapore, though I must say Singapore has been where we really had to sit down and understand the whole concept better on how to deal with scope one, scope two, scope three. And now that we have, it is now embedded into our basis of design and you'll see how in Indonesia, for example, when we build or in engaging when we expand, it's not going to be like how we would have done it, say five years ago. This is going to be the sustainability built into it. And I'm saying this as the takeaway because I'm so terribly proud about this that the team has done. So yeah, so with that, I'll... Well, yeah, and so I think that your business being located in Singapore will be an asset to that whole market given everything you've just said and the investment in the market and the commitment that you have to sustainability which is obviously in line with what the government is looking to there and some of the partners you're working with. So it's great. Yeah, it's a great future for BDX and in support of the industry and in support of the planet. So Singapore forces us to think. If there's one thing with Singapore does it forces us to think. Right, and when that happens, it forces you to get better and everyone to get better. Yeah, it does, it does. It's a good thing, right? Yeah, loving it. Yeah, well, thank you, Bron. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to chat with you. Thanks for your time today. And thank you viewers for tuning in to JSA TV and JSA Podcasts. Happy networking.