- Basis Bay’s green commitment predates today’s mega trend of sustainability
- Engineered to Tier-4 standards, the new Cyberjaya centre ensures no single point of failure
Basis Bay is putting the finishing touches on a new eco-premium, Tier-4 infrastructure, world-class data centre in Cyberjaya, slated to go live in October. Speaking at the MDX Summit 2025 fireside on 17 September, Dinesh Manoharan, data centre project lead at Basis Bay, outlined three core value propositions: fault-tolerant resilience, designed-in sustainability, and the critical guarantee of data sovereignty in a single Malaysian-owned facility.
Where uptime is the baseline, not a KPI
While it is a given that every minute of downtime hurts, but for financial services, insurers, and government workloads – sectors where Basis Bay has nearly two decades of experience – it can be existential. This is why the new Cyberjaya data centre is engineered with no single point of failure, mirroring Tier-4 design principles where each critical system has a full redundant pair.
“It may be Tier-4, yet our data centers are built above and beyond the industry standards,” said Dinesh, adding, “Maximum uptime isn’t a target – it’s table stakes.” He is quick to share a remarkable record, “Since 1996 Basis Bay has not lost a single client due to a service-level breach (SLA) breach, a bar it intends to carry into its new generation of facilities.
Green by design, not by afterthought
Basis Bay’s green commitment predates today’s mega trend of sustainability. Proof lies in the fact that in 2009 it built Asia’s first purpose-built green data centre – in Cyberjaya. That site, and the experience of running it for almost two decades for demanding world class clients, led to what Dinesh calls an “eco-premium” approach, “merging environmental considerations into form, fabric, and operations from day one.
The new Cyberjaya DC2 extends Basis Bay’s green DNA under an eco-premium banner. Clarifying what this means, Dinesh says, “When we say eco premium, it is the amount of effort and thought process that is put before even building.”
That shows up in EIA-led site planning, transplanting trees, sourcing local, lower-impact materials, and hydrology features. Dinesh is specific about cooling logic, saying “We have a bathtub rooftop design that drops shadow on the roof, which enhances cooling, where every degree Celsius of cooling power that you save, it translates into energy saved, and energy saved is income saved.”
Not surprising that the design input for the new facility tapped the best consultants, local and global with 17 consultants involved. Key highlights include
- A unique bathtub rooftop that channels rain water to improve cooling efficiency.
- A BioSwell pond to support local ecosystems.
- Relocating trees and flora during construction to preserve local biodiversity.
- Sourcing eco-friendly building materials from local suppliers.
“It’s about designing with the environment in mind, not just the data,” he explained. “In today’s world, both matter equally.”
Selling white space not the game for Basis Bay
Plenty of data centre providers sell white space. That is not Basis Baýs game which focuses on pushing its service layer as the differentiator. A 24/7 `Smart Hands` team acts as an on-site extension of client operations, handling installs, swaps, and triage without waiting for off-site engineers. This is reinforced by preventive lifecycle management which aims to keep assets running past vendor “end-of-life” labels through checks and maintenance cycles.
Sovereignty by design
With global hyperscalers expanding across ASEAN, control over where data lives has re-entered board agendas. Dinesh stresses the point that, “Basis Bay´s facilities are Malaysian-owned and operated, offering enterprises and public sector clients a sovereign alternative with a single point of accountability across design, build, operations, and management. Everything is done by us in-house.”
Its value proposition is clear, “We are offering world class compliance certainty, reduced supply-chain ambiguity, and data residency on home soil.”
In other words, one accountable Malaysian owner-operator for design, build, operations, and facilities management.
