Google’s getting speedier in Asia with new data centers

Google is telling Asian users to expect Google services to run up to 30 percent faster once a trio of new data centers come online.

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Google’s head of products in India, Lalitesh Katragadda, told India’s Economic Times that it expects data centers in Singapore and Taiwan to be operational in 2013. A third data center in Hong Kong is also under construction.

As a result, Google services users in most parts of Asian, including the Indian subcontinent, can expect faster, more responsive performance from their Google-made web apps.

While India is one of Google’s largest markets, Katragadda said the climate wasn’t suitable for data centers (odd, considering Google competitor Facebook has had such marked success in hotter weather and higher temperatures). Still, the company hopes to boost slow speeds for services like YouTube and Gmail with relatively nearby facilities.

“Internet connectivity speed in India is not very high. These data centers will be crucial to this market due to its proximity,” said Katragadda.

“More new Internet users are coming online everyday here in Asia than anywhere else in the world,” said Google of its new facility in Changhua County, Taiwan. The entire project, which it expects to complete in the second half of 2013, will cost around $300 million by the time it’s finished.

“This data center will be the first in our fleet to save energy through a nighttime cooling and thermal energy storage system,” reads the project’s page. “And, like our other facilities in Asia, this will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly data centers in the region, built to the same high standard we use around the world.”

The Hong Kong data center is still in formative stages, just more than a year after Google bought the 2.7 hectares of land in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Kowloon on which it’s constructing the new facility. The Singapore facility will be the first of the three to start operations, flipping its switches in the next couple months.

Interestingly, Google is launching community grants in each area where the new data centers will be opened.

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Generally, Google claims its data centers use 50 percent less energy than those of its competitors, which for various products include Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft, and dozens of other companies.

top image via Google