AC3 shifts data centre operations to Equinix

AC3 has begun the process of moving a portion of its colocation operations and all of its hosted environment to Equinix and out of its other data centre provider Global Switch.

AC3’s GM of operational services Claudia Couzi told CRN that the current move was one of the final steps in a strategy initiated when AC3 acquired hosting provider Bulletproof in 2018.

“The legacy AC3 business had points of presence in a number of data centres as did Bulletproof, “ Couzi explained.

“[At that time] we started a program to consolidate our points of presence in a way that makes the best sense to us.

"What I mean by that is by creating a type of unified ecosystem, trying to follow common blueprints for how we design and deploy our data centre locations, and also the infrastructure that runs on top of it. Ultimately, that's all about servicing our customers even better.”

Couzi said the decision to go with Equinix was primarily driven by AC3’s existing deal with the NSW government to host its GovDC ICT marketplace in Metronode's two facilities in Unanderra and Silverwater. These came under the stewardship of Equinix when the company acquired Metronode in 2017.

AC3 also had a number of separate agreements with Equinix which Couzi said this created a “perfect synergy” to assess the footprint through a broared lense.

Claudia Couzi (AC3)

“The Equinix play helps us be flexible and nimble with how we respond to our customers' needs. Especially if they have specific requirements around which physical location the data can live in.

Government is an important strategic vertical for AC3 and Couzi said the company was making sure it “aligned” itself with Government so it could continue to offer relevant services.

More broadly, Couzi said the landscape for tech projects in government and the private sector was dominated by hybrid-cloud.

“The market has definitely matured and now it is very much about the best cloud for the best use case,” Couzi said.

AC3 said the move is expected to be completed by January 2021.