PLDT sets up Cebu data center for businesses

BUSINESS enterprises in Cebu and other provinces in the Visayas can now outsource the hosting of their information and data and telecommunication services to a  world-class facility provided by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co.

The VITRO Data Center Cebu of PLDT was launched here last Wednesday, June 27, the third facility in the VITRO network of data centers. It is housed in the PLDT Compound in Mandaue City where security and stability is guaranteed.

The two other VITRO data centers are located in Pasig and Subic but PLDT is looking for other areas in country to put up data centers.

According to Eric Alberto, PLDT executive vice president and head of Enterprise and International and Carrier Business, “VITRO Cebu provides enterprises a very secure location to host all their data and information which is supported by unmatched ICT expertise.”

“Data is the lifeblood of enterprises,” said Juan Victor  Hernandez, PLDT vice president and head of the ALPHA Enterprise.

Business enterprises like business process outsourcing, heavy retail, even small and medium ones and government offices can benefit from such critical services provided by the data center. These services include collocation, server hosting, disaster recovery/business continuity, managed data security, network management and other IT services.

Moreover, business enterprises can minimize costs, including the cost of obsolescence. in handling their own information systems, saving at  least  30 percent of the costs, PLDT executives said.

Hernandez added that by outsourcing the hosting of their information and data to the VITRO data center, business enterprises or owners can concentrate on their  core business, improve the bottomline and enjoy work-life balance.

PLDT spent over P2.9 billion in constructing loop 4 linking Cebu to Manila and Luzon data centers via 54,000 kilometers of  digital fiber optic network.

Vitro Data Center Cebu is another pillar for Cebu’s IT infrastracture making it attractive for investments, Beth G. Lui, president and CEO of ePLDT, said.

The Vitro Data Center in Pasig, PLDT’s pioneer data center, acts as a global gateway of all major BPOs, all local telcos, leading international telcos,  major internet service providers and other large enterprises.

At Tier 3.5 category,Vitro Cebu is a highly ranked Internet Data Center in the country making it a world-class infrastracture. The Mandaue-based facility is a primary data center for enterprises in the Visayas-Mindanao area and can be an alternative data recovery site for data centers in Luzon.

This means the Vitro data center can withstand an intensity 8 earthquake as it is seismic zone 4-compliant. Although it has an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems guaranteed to provide seamless flow of power, the Vitro data center also has generators  equivalent to a power plant that provides continuous power during outages, even for a week.

Swipe cards, biometric authentication and video surveillance cameras for access control are part of the facility’s security systems.

The VITRO data centers are also home to the VITRO Internet Exchange (VIX), the country’s first and only high-speed local IP peering platform for low latency delivery of content which is excellent for the gaming industry.

Not only is the VITRO accredited by the Philippine Export Zone Authority, it is also certified for ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System, ISO 14001:204 Environmental Management System and ISO 272001:2005 Information Security Management System standards.

The VITRO data center provides “security, stability and peace of mind to business enterprises,” Hernandez said.

Lui also said the VITRO data center in Pasig was originally created  to handle PLDT and SMART operations 11 years ago but they eventually wanted other enterprises to avail of such services. /Thea C. Rinen