David Zuckerman, Vice-President
I attended the Data Centre World Asia trade show in Singapore on October 9 and 10, 2024, with Win Koerper, our Director of Client Services. The show and the city were both fascinating.
The Trade Show
Visiting with distributors, talking to customers, and seeing the latest equipment that
interfaces with our products and the next generation of data center equipment was great—and important to our business. We enjoyed learning about the latest data center trends in OCP racks and liquid cooling. While there were several immersive cooling vendors, the trend seems to be with piped liquid cooling, although one company was touting a spray version in a vertical housing.
The City
Singapore is about 52 km East-West and 27 km North-South. It has four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil—a classical South Asian language said to be around 4,000 years old— that is otherwise mostly spoken in India and Sri Lanka. Most people use English as the common language, but all students must learn at least two.
The airport was nice, with much to see, but after traveling for about 24 hours, we only wanted to get to our hotels and rest. We caught a cab, and the driver sat on the wrong side, which means the right side. A former British colony, Singapore uses the British standard of driving on the left side of two-way streets, with the driver’s side being on the right side of the vehicle. Even knowing this, it was hard to watch him passing constantly using the right lane.
Singapore is pristine. You won’t see the tiniest particle of debris on the streets or in their underground metro (the equivalent of 2-3 tall escalators deep in some places). You also won’t see any public objects with even the slightest markings that aren’t supposed to be there.
People on the streets and in the metro appear unconcerned and unaware of their surroundings, showing no concern for their safety in public and walking around obliviously.
An American businessman I met there told me of a colleague who left his wallet on the table of an outdoor café one afternoon. He returned the next morning to find the wallet still there, untouched, save the worker who lifted it to wipe the table before returning it to the spot where it sat, waiting for its owner. Singapore is famous for its strict law enforcement, but in three nights and two days, I did not see a single police uniform. I was told that cameras are ubiquitous, and I noticed some around the metro and on many of the overhangs that line the buildings. But I digress.
I caught the shuttle the first morning and walked through the show floor with Win, soaking in as much knowledge as possible about global trends. Our Asia-Pacific partners kindly shared some fun sites to visit in the evening.
The convention center is attached to a luxury mall, complete with a canal, boats, and much more.
After the show, I went to see the view from the venue’s hotel, the Marina Bay Sands. The 57th floor is a rooftop with a restaurant, a bar, and a pool with a seemingly non-edge at the overlook. There is a cover charge, which is credited towards food or drink, and they have some nice options, including Japanese beer and other regional options.
From the bar, you have a nice view of the bay.
As you leave the bar, you get a view off the coast, where you see container ships that appear to fill the waters to and beyond the horizon.
After enjoying that view, I dropped my things off at the hotel, had a nice dinner, and headed to the world’s only “Night Safari”–a nighttime tram tour of the city’s zoo, where the animal habitats have seemingly natural borders.
Although Singapore is known as “Lion City,” lions are not indigenous to the island. That does not stop the Asian Lion from being a huge hit at the zoo. Their tiger perked up as if it was posing just for us as we passed.
The flamingos seemed quite at home in their water habitat.
Only a few animals we passed were in enough light to be photographed.
After the ride, patrons are free to roam, which I did.
The pangolin is a fascinating armored creature, but this one was curled up, sleeping.
No trip to the zoo at night would be complete without a chance to view the scorpions under a black light and a nice constrictor, too.
After about an hour of roaming the zoo, soaked in perspiration from the humidity, I
returned to the hotel to clean up and prepare for day two of the show.
The second day after the show, I walked around the gardens and the extravagant mall.
Singapore has the largest Ferris wheel I have ever seen . . . nestled nicely in its environment.
The gardens contrast beautifully with the modern buildings.
Escalators in the subway are pristine and quite long.
Not only are the platforms clean, but they are also walled off to prevent mishaps.
Before the train arrives, they play a jingle that sounds like a child’s toy and announce the train. The floors are clean enough that if you dropped something, you would pick it up without needing to clean it.
There are multiple dynamic environments at the airport as well.
I was surprised that there was no separate security area. You just go in and enjoy the scenery.
Around the airport are duty-free shops for souvenirs and other things—mostly quite expensive.
All in all, it was a fascinating trip. I hope you enjoyed this small taste of Singapore.
