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YCO Cloud is pleased to announce the appointment of its first General Manager, Mr. Ursus Custer Oliveros.
“We could not be happier to welcome Mr. Oliveros to lead the construction and operation of YCO Cloud’s first data center campus. His track record speaks for itself, along with his impressive track record in delivering complex digital infrastructure, even in the most challenging of times,” said Nik de Ynchausti, Chief Executive Officer of YCO Cloud. “The appointment of Mr. Oliveros as our first General Manager further solidifies YCO’s team of world class data center subject matter experts. We are excited to have him on board and are looking forward to everything he will do in the future” he added.
Custer is a veteran in the data center industry, having started his career in the Data Center Infrastructure Management Team of Accenture. He went on to take more senior roles in the build and operations side for the two leading telecommunications companies in the country, Smart Communications and Globe Telecom. Even with the limitations of the covid-19 pandemic, Custer successfully delivered three concurrent build projects on schedule and more importantly, within budget.
“I feel joining YCO is a huge turning point in my career. One which will allow me to be more creative, think out of the box and finally unencumbered by corporate politics and red tape,” Custer stated.
According to Custer, the landscape of data center facilities in the Philippines is changing and there is much to be excited about. “In terms of the Data Center Market, the APAC region has the highest CAGR. With the combined effects of Singapore and Thailand running out of capacity, continuous rollout of submarine cables and new regulations on data localizations has really positioned the Philippines as the next Data Center hub in APAC. In my conversations with other DC Professionals we view this as just the tip of the iceberg and the dawning of the Data Center Golden Age,” he added.
Having been in the industry for as long as he has, he shared insight on its ongoing evolution: “Those who have been in the industry long enough to see the evolution from the early days of legacy Data Centers with no standards and fire and forget approach. To the fire fighting (literally) days with reactive maintenance and basic redundancy (rated or tier 2), then maturing to a keeping the lights on strategy, anchored on redundancy and minimizing downtime. Nowadays, there is a paradigm shift from building monolithic Data Centers with all the redundancies to ensure service availability (despite the environmental impact carbon footprint) to the purposely built, greenfield data centers with sustainability already considered from the onset.”
Custer brings with him two decades of experience in building and operating data center facilities, with more than 15 data center builds under his belt. His background in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science makes Custer a valuable addition to YCO Cloud’s team as it nears the launch of its first project, YCO Cloud Campus One, located within the Light Industry & Science Park IV in Malvar, Batangas.
YCO Cloud’s greenfield, purpose-built, and carrier neutral approach resonated with Custer. “This makes it equally attractive and challenging for DC professionals. YCO's sustainability vision, one centered on renewable energy adoption and energy efficiency, aligns with my aspirations of building an actual Green Data Center,” he said. Even in the early stages of getting to know the organization, Custer said that he already saw that there was a shared vision with the founding team members. “I was expecting some run of the mill onboarding process but what I experienced was an immersion with the team which I found refreshing and more effective. There was no honeymoon period, instead our team already involved me in the important discussions and requested inputs which I was more than willing to share,” he said.
With an aggressive roll out plan, Custer is focused on achieving the team’s targets through close immersion and coordination with YCO Cloud’s build and design partners. The 12MW Tier III+ facility, set to begin construction in the First Quarter of 2023, is designed to cater to the growing demand for wholesale colocation and hyperscalers in the Philippines.
