THE LOCAL government is moving to establish the proposed centralized data center in a disaster-free zone to ensure uninterrupted operations during natural calamities or cyber threats.
Proponent Councilor Bonz Andre Militar, committee chair on information and technology, revealed this on Tuesday, Sept. 8, following the approval of the ordinance establishing the centralized data center.
Militar said the Davao City Cybercrime Emergency Response Team will start as soon as possible to secure the system, and then the facility will follow.
He emphasized that the chosen location must be in a disaster-free zone to protect operations from earthquakes, floods, fires, typhoons, and tsunamis. This also aims to prevent server disruptions, secure centralized operations, and maintain government functions.
“Dapat ang isa ka lugar is secured, dili kaayo dagan tawo, and disaster-free ang area for the data center,” he addressed reporters during the Pulong-pulong sa Dabawenyos on Tuesday.
Three potential sites are being considered for the proposed 100-square-meter facility, which carries an estimated budget between ₱50 million and ₱60 million.
Addressing questions on the use of extensive clean water and evaporative cooling systems to support high-power facilities, he said the data center will utilize a precision air conditioning system.
“Kini atong data center is just a normal data cabinet that we’re going to air-condition lang. Pwede na, pero katong mas precise air condition atong paliton na i-maintain jud niya ang required na bugnaw,” he said.
The setup will maintain required server temperatures without heavy water consumption, to prevent the environmental strain typically associated with large-scale AI infrastructure.
He stressed that cybersecurity training for personnel will be prioritized in the budget allocation.
While the data center is still pending, the local government hired penetration testers to prevent security breaches in the current operating servers.
The data center will have a designated data breach officer who will coordinate directly with the city’s cybersecurity team to mitigate external threats and unauthorized access.
Militar said the project timeline and site selection will be finalized once the ordinance moves to the executive department for implementation and budget allocation.
The Davao City Council passed the ordinance establishing a “Davao City Government Centralized Data Center” on Sept. 1.
Under the centralization plan, all department servers will be consolidated into a unified central data center to allow easier management by the City Information and Technology Center (CITC) and establish stronger cybersecurity protocols.
At present, the city relies on 17 to 19 server rooms scattered across various departments.
