Basis Bay’s Green Commitment Predates Today’s Mega Trend of Sustainability
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 every minute of downtime hurts, for sectors such as financial services, insurers, and government workloads—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 centres are built above and beyond industry standards,” said Dinesh, adding, “Maximum uptime isn’t a target – it’s table stakes.” He shared a remarkable record: “Since 1996, Basis Bay has not lost a single client due to a service-level agreement (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 with 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.”
This commitment is evident in EIA-led site planning, transplanting trees, sourcing local, lower-impact materials, and hydrology features. Dinesh is specific about the cooling logic, saying, “We have a bathtub rooftop design that drops shadow on the roof, which enhances cooling. Every degree Celsius of cooling power you save translates into energy saved, and energy saved is income saved.”
Not surprisingly, the design input for the new facility involved the best consultants, both local and global, with 17 consultants engaged. Key highlights include:
- A unique bathtub rooftop that channels rainwater 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 Is Not Basis Bay’s Game
Many data centre providers sell white space, but that is not Basis Bay’s approach. Instead, they focus on pushing their 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 aimed at keeping assets running beyond vendor “end-of-life” labels through regular checks and maintenance cycles.
Sovereignty by Design
With global hyperscalers expanding across ASEAN, control over where data resides has re-entered boardroom agendas. Dinesh stresses, “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.”
The value proposition is clear: “We are offering world-class compliance certainty, reduced supply-chain ambiguity, and data residency on home soil.”
In other words, Basis Bay provides one accountable Malaysian owner-operator for design, build, operations, and facilities management—ensuring complete transparency and control.