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Digital Edge publishes Green Finance Framework

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Leading Asia Pacific data center platform reinforces commitment to ESG goals

HONG KONG, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Edge (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd. (“Digital Edge”) has published its first Green Finance Framework (the “Framework”). The Framework sets out guidelines for securing green financing to fund data center projects that aim to deliver positive environmental outcomes and which are aligned with the company’s broader ESG goals, including Digital Edge’s target to be a carbon neutral platform by 2030.

The new Framework includes four eligibility criteria which must be met in order for a project to qualify for green financing, namely energy efficiency, renewable energy, green buildings and sustainable water and wastewater management. Each eligibility category has associated impact indicators to measure the impact of green finance proceeds.

For example, for energy efficiency the Framework uses Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to assess eligibility. Only new investments in data center projects that meet the minimum threshold of an annualized design PUE of 1.30 or lower in cool climates and 1.40 or lower in warm climates will qualify for green financing under the Framework. Digital Edge’s two most recent facilities launched in 2024, both have an annualized design PUE of 1.25 or lower.

Commenting on the Framework, Digital Edge’s CFO Jonathan Walbridge said, “The publication of green financing guidelines so early in our company’s evolution speaks to the importance of ESG commitments to our business. Against a backdrop of fast-moving technological advancements to support increasingly power-hungry AI deployments, this Framework is an important tool to help us align our financing activities with the pursuit of our sustainability agenda and ensure we can unlock cost efficient capital”.

To ensure accountability, the Framework also sets out methods to monitor, track and report outcomes, specifically through the company’s ESG Steering Committee and annual ESG Report.

Digital Edge’s Framework has received an opinion from Moody’s Ratings, achieving an SQS2 sustainability score (very good). The Framework is aligned with internationally recognized green finance standards, including the International Capital Market Association’s (ICMA) Green Bond Principles (GBP) 2021, and the Green Loan Principles (GLP) 2023 jointly published by the Loan Market Association, the Asia-Pacific Loan Market Association and the Loan Syndications & Trading Association. Crédit Agricole CIB and ING Bank N.V. (“ING”) acted as joint Green Structuring Coordinators and assisted on the development of the Framework.

Carmen Tsang, Head of Sustainable Investment Banking for Greater China at Crédit Agricole CIB, said, “We congratulate Digital Edge on the successful launch of its Green Finance Framework, which establishes a commendable benchmark for the sector. The framework reflects Digital Edge’s dedication to sustainable innovation, and highlights their vital role in developing greener digital infrastructure, supporting Asia’s decarbonization journey.”

Andrew Chew, Director for Sustainable Finance Asia Pacific at ING, commented, “Our partnership with Digital Edge highlights ING’s commitment to empowering data center companies as they venture into the green finance market. Establishing a green finance framework and navigating the SPO process can be complex. However, with the support of a trusted bank offering seasoned expertise, companies can navigate these challenges with confidence and clarity.”

Digital Edge secured its first ever green loan last year in connection with the development of its recently launched data center in Seoul, SEL2, with a KRW 440 billion green financing, representing the first ever green loan for a data center project in South Korea. The company has confirmed that this previous loan adheres to, and is compliant with, its new Green Finance Framework.

Read the Green Finance Framework here.

Read the Moody’s second party opinion here.

About Digital Edge

Headquartered in Singapore, Digital Edge is a trusted and forward-looking data center platform company, established to transform digital infrastructure in Asia. Through building and operating state-of-the-art, energy-efficient data centers rich with connectivity options, Digital Edge aims to bring new colocation and interconnect options to the Asian market, making infrastructure deployment in the region easy, efficient and economical.

Digital Edge was founded by a seasoned senior management team with decades of industry experience and an established track record of value creation in the data center, cloud and telecommunications industries in the Asia Pacific region. Backed by leading alternative investment firm Stonepeak, Digital Edge has in excess of US$1 billion in deployed and committed capital, establishing itself as a market-leading pan-Asia data center platform. The company provides data center and fiber services across Asia, with a presence in India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines and China. You can visit the company’s website at www.digitaledgedc.com.

Media Contacts

Digital Edge

Liane Cresswell, Director Corporate Communications
Liane.Cresswell@digitaledgedc.com / +852 5503 2522

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/digital-edge-publishes-green-finance-framework-302296109.html

SOURCE Digital Edge

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Smallest.ai launches Lightning – World’s fastest text-to-speech model

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Lightning generates upto 10 seconds of audio in just 100msGenerates hyper-realistic audio in English and HindiDrastically reduces the cost for all voicebot builders

BENGALURU, India, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Smallest.ai, a leading developer of multi-modal AI foundation models headquartered in San Francisco, California, announces the launch of Lightning the world’s fastest real-time text to speech model that can generate up to 10 seconds of audio in just 100ms. This enables voicebot providers globally to build ultra-realistic bots with sub-second latency, whilst drastically simplifying the integration process.

What makes Lightning revolutionary is also the fact that it costs drastically lower than Western competitors with prices starting at 0.02 USD/min (1.6 Rs/min). This enables population-scale use cases for voicebots at sub 1 Rs/min cost.

Traditionally, real-time text-to-speech models require streaming, which opens up a websocket connection, increasing the computational load on servers and making it difficult and more expensive to scale voicebots. Lightning enables bot providers to scale faster while drastically cutting down on API costs by making it possible to get audio via a simple REST API in around 100ms.

Lightning currently supports multiple English and Hindi accents. Smallest.ai plans on adding other Indian, European, and Asian languages as well in the next couple of months.

Voicebot platforms with early access to Lightning cut their per minute cost by 8x along with a drastic improvement in voice quality.

Whilst Lightning is intended for real-time use-cases, it can also be used to create audiobooks, and voiceovers for reels on Instagram, YouTube, and many more social media platforms. For non-developers, Lightning is available on the Waves Speech platform where support for voice cloning, accent conversion, and other features are available in beta mode.

When asked about it’s mission, Sudarshan Kamath, Founder of Smallest.ai said, “Why are 1B humans not speaking to AI voices everyday despite incredible advancements in Voice AI? This is the problem we are trying to solve.”

About Smallest.ai:

Started by IIT graduates Sudarshan Kamath and Akshat Mandloi, Smallest.ai is backed by marquee investors like 3one4 CapitalBetter Capital and Upsparks Capital.

Smallest.ai’s platform is available on Waves and the team actively engages with their customers on discord which is one of the world’s largest speech AI communities.

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Digital Realty Expands Global Connectivity with Strategic Partnerships in Asia Pacific to Fuel AI Innovation and Future-ready Digital Infrastructure

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StarHub, KINX Inc. (Korea Internet Neutral eXchange), and ARTERIA Networks extend service reach to global audiences via ServiceFabric™, Digital Realty’s service orchestration platform

SINGAPORE, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, today announced the continued momentum in Asia Pacific of ServiceFabric™, its service orchestration platform that seamlessly interconnects workflow participants, applications, clouds and ecosystems on PlatformDIGITAL®, its global data center platform.

Over 30 Asia Pacific partners are now listed in Service Directory, a central marketplace that allows Digital Realty partners to highlight their offerings, extend their reach to global enterprises, and scale into new markets, reaching over 5,000 customers of Digital Realty. Globally, more than 220 services are now available on the Service Directory, including access to Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange (AIPx) partner solutions, where we continue to add new partners to the platform. Additionally, Digital Realty’s secure and direct connections to nearly 250 global cloud on-ramps create a vibrant ecosystem for seamless interconnection and collaboration.

New Asia Pacific partners now available on Service Directory include StarHub, a leading telecommunications service provider in Singapore; KINX Inc. (Korea Internet Neutral eXchange) which operates the largest layer-2 based internet exchange in South Korea; and ARTERIA Networks, a leading enterprise-focused telecommunications carrier in Japan.

As enterprises in Asia Pacific look to deploy private AI applications which rely on low latency and the private exchange of data, an open interconnection and orchestration platform is critical. Through ServiceFabric™, customers are now able to easily find, access, and manage connectivity and digital solutions from service providers such as StarHub, KINX, and ARTERIA Networks. This open and collaborative environment empowers businesses to build and orchestrate their ideal solutions, scale confidently, and easily handle demanding workloads.

Through Service Directory’s ‘Click-to-Connect’ capability, Digital Realty customers can orchestrate and automate on-demand connections to the services they need, significantly streamlining workflows and removing manual configuration steps. This also enables customers to generate secure service keys, granting controlled access to resources and partners with customizable security parameters, as well as automate approval workflows and facilitate connections to Service Directory, paving the way for seamless interconnectivity.

Quotes:

Govind Choudhary, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Asia Pacific, Digital Realty said: “We are delighted with the continued momentum of our ServiceFabric™ platform in Asia Pacific. The open platform, with its versatile and well-connected ecosystem that continues to grow, provides our customers with a dynamic environment that empowers them to innovate more freely, adapt swiftly to global changes, and optimize their AI strategies. By providing choice and global connectivity, we help our customers accelerate their time-to-market and maximize their competitive edge.”

Tan Kit Yong, Head of Business Group, StarHub, said: “At StarHub, we understand that in the AI-driven era, low latency goes far beyond speed alone. It is about optimising data routing, network topology, and reducing the number of hops between nodes. By minimising latency, we ensure faster decision-making and near-instant responses which is essential for AI applications like machine learning, autonomous operations, and real-time analytics. This is especially vital for time-sensitive tasks, particularly those spanning hybrid environments that integrate both public and private networks. Through our advanced low-latency connectivity at Digital Realty locations in Singapore, powered by ServiceFabric™, we’re enabling seamless peering connections and highly efficient data transit. This allows Digital Realty customers to leverage StarHub’s robust infrastructure for their most demanding AI and data-driven workloads.”

KwanWoo Kim, Director, Global Business Strategy, Korea Internet Neutral eXchange, said: “At KINX, we are focused on interconnecting Korean and global internet service providers, cloud providers and enterprises to achieve our goal as a one-stop solution provider. ServiceFabric™ Service Directory provides a unique platform that empowers Digital Realty customers to seamlessly connect with KINX and our CloudHub® service—Korea’s largest cloud connectivity platform. This partnership will bridge the gap between the Korean and global markets, enabling ICN10 enterprise customers to establish private, secure connections to major cloud providers in Korea, as well as KINX customers to connect with global cloud regions. We’re excited about this opportunity to enhance connectivity and drive innovation.”

Tatsuya Ohkubo, Vice President, Corporate Business Div., ARTERIA Networks, said: “ServiceFabric™ Service Directory enables businesses to access and use cloud and connectivity services in an open and dynamic way. We are excited that ARTERIA Networks’ services will now not only serve Digital Realty customers in Japan but will have global reach, including robust connectivity between Japan and Canada via Topaz, the world’s first submarine cable to directly connect Japan and Canada.”

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

For Additional Information

Media Contacts
Sin Huay Ho
Digital Realty
+65 8125 8380
shho@digitalrealty.com 

Investor Relations
Jordan Sadler / Jim Huseby
Digital Realty
+1 415 275 5344
InvestorRelations@digitalrealty.com 

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including the company’s strategy, the Asia-Pacific market, ServiceFabric™ and Service Directory, the role of artificial intelligence and customer demand. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/digital-realty-expands-global-connectivity-with-strategic-partnerships-in-asia-pacific-to-fuel-ai-innovation-and-future-ready-digital-infrastructure-302296348.html

SOURCE Digital Realty

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New survey by Market Logic Software exposes costly underutilization of corporate knowledge and market insights: B2C enterprises losing out on millions in value

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BERLIN, Nov. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A new global survey of marketing and product management leaders, Hyperscaling Insights Impact reveals that a staggering 40% of key decisions are taken without reference to consumer insights. This oversight, driven by cumbersome information access, is costing businesses millions in lost value annually.

Published today by Market Logic Software, the survey highlights how reversing this trend could deliver top line impact. An overwhelming 90% of marketing leaders surveyed believe easier access to market insights would boost advertising effectiveness while 89% of product leaders surveyed say it would enhance product launch success rates.

Appetite for utilizing market insights and consumer data is strong.  Business leaders across industries want to apply this data to at least 80% of decisions – a 20% increase over current usage. Yet, fragmented data systems and formats remain a major roadblock. Nearly half (49%) of executives report it takes too long to find and access data. To overcome this, respondents identified implementing a centralized insights platform as a top priority.

The negative impact of not using centralized knowledge management systems is visible in the survey data. Almost 59% of respondents who are not regular users of a knowledge management system reported problems finding and accessing data compared with 36% of those who have a system in place today.

“Our survey shows that marketing and product leaders see vast potential for revenue growth and margin improvements by tackling technological barriers to insights access,” said Dirk Wolf, CEO of Market Logic Software. “In the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry alone we estimate a $25 billion opportunity. Insights executives and CIOs now have a critical role in enabling their organizations to unlock this advantage rapidly by building a strategic end-to-end insights process utilizing internal and external data sources and consumer insights holistically.”  

The survey was conducted by Insight Platforms, a leading independent voice in the insights industry. Mike Stevens, CEO of Insight Platforms, commented on the results, “Advances in technology, especially AI, make it easier than ever to generate and share market insights at scale. Yet, the survey data shows many businesses are missing out. It’s time for IT and insights teams to collaborate and fully leverage their market intelligence and research investments.”

Download a full copy of the “Hyperscaling Insights Impact’ report here.

About Market Logic Software 

Market Logic is a market-leading SaaS provider of insights management solutions. Our award-winning AI-enabled insights management platform DeepSights™ allows insights teams to equip business decision-makers with trusted insights at scale and speed. Since 2006, we’ve helped hundreds of consumer-focused brands across the globe to transform into insights-driven businesses. Market leaders such as Unilever, Vodafone, and Tesco are driving innovation and making smarter market moves with the support of Market Logic.  

For more information, please visit marketlogicsoftware.com

Media contact:
Daniela Zuin,
Chief Marketing and Growth Officer, Market Logic
Email: Daniela.zuin@marketlogicsoftware.com
Tel: +44 7799113040

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/new-survey-by-market-logic-software-exposes-costly-underutilization-of-corporate-knowledge-and-market-insights-b2c-enterprises-losing-out-on-millions-in-value-302295601.html

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