About

For over 30 years we have helped companies realize their growth potential.

We are a technology company that started out in infrastructure, computing services, and network security. We have since evolved our services to include business consulting that helps companies to harmoniously integrate their branding and operations with technology.

Data Privacy Notice

Our history

1988

1988: MDI is incorporated, with a one room office in Dian Street, Makati.

1988 – 1992: Two years after the 1986 People Power Revolution, the country is flush with hope. Worldwide, the Internet is slowly emerging as a key technology. A young Filipino entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, Myla Crespo Villanueva, arrives in the Philippines and starts a high innovation information technology company, ready to harness Filipino talent to set the country on the course to digitization.

1989

MDI begins full operation. Partners with leading American terminal and computer manufacturer Wyse Technologies. Lands a major deal with Social Security System. Wyse is later acquired by Dell Corporation, a strong MDI technology partner.

MDI and LAN leader 3Com Corp., whose founder Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet, embark in a decade-long partnership.

SSS awards MDI the country’s first IP (internet protocol) infrastructure project, connecting SSS’s 120 branches.

See years 1991 to 2000

1991

Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) appoints MDI to set up their LAN with modern structured cabling systems.
Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web in CERN, and in 1991 people outside of CERN were invited to join this new web community.

1992

P&G chooses MDI as its integrator to implement a campus-wide fiber optic installation. MDI wins the first contract to install Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) technology for national services, allowing the transmission of information at higher speeds over long distances via fiber-optic connections.

1993

Berners-Lee advocated to ensure that CERN would agree to make the underlying code available on a royalty-free basis, forever. This decision was announced in April 1993, and sparked a global wave of creativity, collaboration and innovation never seen before. (WWW Foundation)
The Philippines’ biggest power distributor, Meralco, contracts MDI to design and install its WAN, improving Meralco’s inter-branch communications.

1994

In 1994, Tim Berners-Lee forms the World Wide Web Consortium. It is in these years that MDI builds its reputation as a leading enabler of networking and web technologies for business and government

1995

The Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines is signed into law in February 1995, liberalizing the country’s telecom industry.
Petron installs a WAN and first campus-wide fiber optic network in its refineries through MDI.

1996

President Fidel V. Ramos declares 1996 as “Philippine Information Technology Year”
MDI is named the “Official Network System Integrator” at the Internet World Philippines conference. MDI bags the Department of Science and Technology’s “Massively Parallel Processing Computer System Project”, which allows the DOST to use computers for multiple scientific applications.
Smart Telecommunications, established five years earlier, selects MDI as its network integrator for IT operations.

1998

1998 – 2002: As the millennium approaches, the international Wi-Fi Alliance rebrands the IEEE 802.11b short-range radio networking standard as “Wi-Fi”. The advent of cable-free, reliable, radio-wave access gives MDI another rapidly evolving technology to champion not only in the urban cities of the Philippines, but even in the underserved areas using wireless broadband technologies. The catalyst of this national data connectivity was Meridian Telekoms, which Myla Villanueva sets up in late 1998. “The web will be coming unwired. This was the whole thought process behind Meridian. And we wanted provincial and rural communities to participate in the first broadband digital revolution,” she says.
US computer technology company Dell Corporation signs up with MDI, forms an enduring partnership that lasts to this day.

2000

Wolfpac Mobile is founded and becomes the largest mobile Value Added Services company in the country by creating innovative multimedia TV games, and providing mobile music, ringtones and logos. Wolfpac launches a first government SMS query application connecting SSS loan status information with its members.

See years 2001 to 2010

2003

2003 – 2007: In these years, broadband is not just a trend, it’s becoming the norm. Broadband gives the Web an unprecedented scale in generating data, thus 2006 sees the launch of cloud-based storage services by Amazon. Steve Jobs introduces the first Apple iPhone in 2007 to the world; and in the U.S., streaming video content on-demand begins. It is amid this backdrop of rapidly growing personal computing and broadband access that MDI sees huge gains, with its sale of Meridian Telekoms to Smart Communications in one of the biggest merger and acquisitions of its time in the Philippines.
In October, Smart Communications acquires majority interest in Wolfpac Mobile, Inc., which is recognized globally by the GSM Association as world-class for its innovative apps.
Myla Villanueva is named “Woman Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst and Young, the Department of Trade and Industry, Philippine Stock Exchange, Bankers Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Securities Exchange Commission.

2004

Meridian Telekoms is acquired by Smart Communications in September 2004, in what is considered one of the largest acquisitions of an entrepreneurial technology company. Two years later, Meridian is renamed as Smart Broadband Inc. or SmartBro.

2005

2005 – 2010:Myla Villanueva represents Smart Communications in the technology body of the GSM Association, a global telecommunications industry body. She later chairs the Mobile Innovation Forum linking global telcos, global venture capital companies and entrepreneurial entities across the world.

2007

Myla enters her fifth foray into technopreneurship by co-founding Hong Kong-based Novare Technologies with private investor and telecoms entrepreneur Craig Ehrlich, longtime Chair of the GSM Association.

2010

Myla Villanueva is recognized as one of the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) in the field of Science and Technology.

2013

IBM Corporation signs MDI as its Asset Management and OSS (Operational Support Systems) Transformation Solutions partner.

MDI delivers the first in a series of multi-petabyte Hadoop deployments in the country with partner, Cloudera, and Dell. MDI continues to grow this deployment which is now one of the largest deployments in the region.

2015

Globe Telecom, in a bid to boost robust network operations platforms addressing crucial customer needs and complex network demands, awards its multi-year OSS Assurance project to MDI.

2016

Globe Telecoms awards its Cloud Transformation project to MDI, and names MDI its Managed Private Cloud partner.

2017

Union Bank of the Philippines, engages MDI for The Ark, UnionBank’s first fully digital bank branch in the country. The Ark is a culmination of MDI’s Digital Transformation (DX) practice, transforming Physical and Digital Assets to further Brand aspirations to create powerful Customer Experiences. UnionBank names MDI as “Partner of the Year”.

2018

MDI marks its 30th anniversary still at the top of its game in technology solutions and its impact on the growth of enterprises and the lives of consumers. MDI is the leader in Managed Cloud services, operating the largest private clouds and deploying the largest Big Data platforms in the country.

The country’s top conglomerates such as Ayala Land and Aboitiz and geothermal company EDC (Energy Development Corp.) join PLDT/Smart as top clients for MDI’s Managed Security Services.

MDI and Novare embarks on multi-year, multi-channel DX and DevOps programs for financial giants BDO, Metrobank and Globe-Ayala Corps fintech Mynt, online payments tech company Voyager Innovations and Sun Life Financial.

MDI has supported PPCRV in national elections for 10 years. This was especially significant during the first automated elections in 2010. In 2019, Myla took on the chairmanship of PPCRV.

2019 and beyond

The 5 pillars of Digital Transformation concentrating on Hybrid clouds, DevOps, API, Big Data and Security will be the main focus in the next three years. MDI will continue to invest in the best talent and in their technical and leadership growth.

MDI’s expertise will be used to help businesses in their road to digital transformation. For MDI, it is no longer just about providing solutions, but extending the right tools and resources for companies to achieve successful DIgital Transformations. At the center of it all is the consumer and their experience.