Visa has built two new data centres, one in the UK and one in Singapore as part of an expansion of its global transaction processing.
The two data centres will be an addition to Visa’s existing processing facilities in North America, which currently exists of four data centres.
The UK and Singapore sites have been developed as new global processing hubs, which the company hopes will increase the speed, resilience and geographical diversity of Visa’s infrastructure.
Both data centres are built with advanced technology that includes high-performance hardware, energy-efficient power and cooling infrastructure. No specific details on the exact technology used have been given.
Following the acquisition of Visa Europe, which Visa completed in June 2016 at a price of €21.2bn, the two companies’ combined into a unified global organisation. This integration influenced the start of a multi-year process which delivered 3,200 EU clients onto VisaNet, the global transaction processing network and a retrofit of Visa’s UK legacy data centre.
Read more:Visa Checkout brings secure eCommerce to the UK
It is also expected to transform the company’s method of payment services, to provide customers with more sophisticated ways to pay in today’s hyper-connected global economy. This will include digital payment methods such as being able to make payments via connected devices.
Rajat Taneja, EVP of technology, Visa said: “Commerce and payments are in the midst of an historic shift from analog to digital. A growing majority of people around the globe are leaving cash behind and reaching instead for their cards and devices to pay.
“With our technology investments in Asia and Europe, we’re scaling up our infrastructure to meet the explosive growth in digital and mobile payments, while maintaining the secure, convenient an always-on secure that our clients and partners expect.”
Visa’s UK and Singapore data centres each consist of 10,000 square feet space. The UK hub will drive the speed-to-market for new payment innovations in the European market while it’s Singapore site, which stands as Visa’s first processing centre in Southeast Asia will serve clients, cardholders and merchants across the region and globally.
The expansion is expected to boost the resilience of the company’s infrastructure, while also minimising the likelihood of service disruptions to over 16,000 of Visa’s financial institutions.
Chris Clark, Group executive for Asia Pacific, Visa said: “As home to our Asia Pacific headquarters, Singapore is already a major hub for the Visa business. With our new processing facility in Singapore, we’re strengthening our ability to meet rising demand for digital payments, while driving the pace of payment innovation across the Asia Pacific region.”
Visa plans to begin processing global transactions across the two facilities in 2018.
