Canberra Data Centres unveils Melbourne expansion plans

Data centre operator Canberra Data Centres (CDC) is set to expand its presence in Australia with plans to enter the market in Melbourne through the construction of a 268MW facility.

The facility will add 150MW of capacity to the company’s existing development initiatives, bringing the development and current operational capacity to 700MW. It plans to have 13 data centres in operation by 2023.

A company spokesperson told CRN that Melbourne was chosen as the new area of expansion due to customer demand.

The spokesperson added that the company was starting the approvals processes and expected to commence construction shortly after completion, but did not provide a date when construction would commence. 

"In CDC’s experience, new capacity can be delivered in an agile way in as little as 12-15 months," they said.

CDC touts itself as the largest colocation provider for the Australian government, operating four data centres over two campus sites within the Australian Capital Territory, two in Auckland, New Zealand and another three in the Sydney suburb of Eastern Creek. The company is also in the process of constructing a fourth facility in Eastern Creek.

In January this year, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) signed a five-year, $4.2 million deal with CDC for hosting services, replacing a previous deal with Global Switch.

In a statement, the company said the expansion was to meet the ongoing demand of its customers that require “the highest standards of security, availability, sustainability and resilience”.

“Since its inception as a clean and green data centre business, CDC’s market-leading position has been based on meeting client needs as they arise,” CDC founder and CEO Greg Boorer said in the same statement.

CDC says it uses 100 percent renewable energy in the operation of its ACT facilities.

“In a market where announcements about data centre capacity investments are now commonplace, but where projects rarely progress to anywhere near the stated capacity, CDC is distinguishing itself with over one billion dollars of construction underway today, to reach 268MW of operating capacity.”

Boorer said this helped the company achieve the ‘Certified Strategic’ accreditation by the Australian Government for all of its data centres.

“Because we build our facilities with the highest security, availability and resilience standards in mind, customers can come to CDC knowing that every single one of our facilities are certified at the highest level,” he added.

“We are looking forward to continuing to serve our customers into new geographies and we are excited about the significant demand for our Melbourne capacity.”

The colocation provider was criticised by serial entrepreneur Bevan Slattery in April last year for not giving other carriers access to government cloud hosted services.

“In times of crisis, it's awesome to see so many people pull together. At the same time it's disappointing to see companies exploit this for their commercial benefit,” Slattery said at the time.

He urged the federal government to “make a concerted effort” to move away from “monopoly providers” that are also massive single points of failure.