data centre expansions

You can see from the article below the demand in Australia for Data Centres, CXN can hopefully capitalise on this need here, in Singapore & China. Sure we don't build them, but we can help all those businesses make the most out of their investments in them!

Would be good to see News before Easter, looks unlikely now though.


Polaris plans $200m Melbourne data centre

VICTORIA'S economy will receive a $200 million boost with the development of a green data centre in Melbourne's west.

The Polaris Victoria data centre will be built on a 1.2ha greenfield site in the booming suburb of Derrimut, about18km from the central business district.

The investment decision was driven by strong demand from the corporate sector, especially financial institutions, Springfield Data Centre director Chris Schroor said.

Work on the project is slated to begin in July and be completed by the end of next year.

Polaris Victoria is expected to have 7000sq m of raised-floor IT space sitting in a five-storey, 14,000sq m facility.

This will be Springfield Land's second data centre, after a Queensland hub, also branded Polaris, whose clients include Suncorp, state and federal government departments, NEC Citec and Ipswich City Council.

Developments of this scale require commitments by major anchor tenants, and Mr Schroor said he was "comfortable with pre-commitment levels".

"I'm confident the project can kick off in July," he said.

"There has been strong demand coming out of Melbourne, especially from financial institutions looking for data centre capacity (and) there has been no purpose-built data centre in Melbourne for a number of years."

He said there was keen interest from the telecommunications sector, as well as state and federal government departments, in data centre services in Melbourne.

Mr Schroor said the Derrimut location was strongly backed by the local council, which was trying to shed the suburb's manufacturing reputation to attract new investors. "We did an extensive site assessment and analysis and were satisfied that it matched our requirements in terms of the communications network infrastructure, flight paths, flood zones and plenty of water for cooling," he said.

Polaris Victoria will emulate its Queensland sibling, with security and environmental aspects strongly embedded into the building's architecture.

When the floods hit Queensland earlier this year, the Polaris data centre escaped unscathed.

"We were operational throughout the whole time. The location choice was important then, and we've done that with the site in Victoria," Mr Schroor said.

Other data centre players interested in Victoria include recently listed NextDC.

Its 6000sq m Port Melbourne centre should be ready in November and has bagged its first tenant, Harbour MSP, in a seven-year, $23m deal for 1000sq m of space.

NextDC's Brisbane data centre is expected to go live at the end of May and another, at Macquarie Park, north of Sydney, is due for completion in the third quarter of next year.

The data centre market has surged of late, with recent projects or commitments easily exceeding $1 billion.

Hewlett-Packard will open a $100m-plus data centre at Eastern Creek, in Sydney's west, by the end of the year. Facebook's provider, Digital Realty, plans to pump in up to $350m to Australia, while Global Switch will invest $200m to expand in Sydney.

Fujitsu has signed Bankwest as its first customer for a data centre in Perth, said to be worth about $100m. Equinix, Tier 5 and Verb IT are also investing.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/polaris-plans-200m-green-data-centre/story-e6frgakx-1226041176803