CSC mulls Perth-based cloud

CSC plans to offer cloud computing services from a data centre in Perth in order to cash in on the mining boom.

Siki Giunta, vice president of global cloud services and software, visited executives in Western Australia this week and was satisfied of the region's demand for such services.

“We are very seriously thinking about a cloud in Perth,” Giunta said at the launch of a new CSC cloud service called BizCloud.

CSC operates a data centre in Subiaco, Perth, but Giunta said the company would assess whether the facility would require an expansion or refurbishment to meet its service level agreements with cloud computing customers.

Giunta has asked the company’s global data centre team and newly appointed Australian general manager of cloud services Paul Gibbs to make this assessment.

Gibbs took on the newly created role after a twenty year history in IT with CSC, BHP, IBM and Elcom. He reports to Giunta and chief technology officer Bob Hayward.

If the Subiaco facility is deemed inappropriate, CSC will consider either leasing space in another Tier III data centre or building another data centre.

Giunta said the company had about 100TB of memory deployed in its Australian cloud sites in Sydney and Melbourne, and another 300TB scheduled to come online.

CSC's cloud services are based on the vBlock integrated technology stack supplied by Cisco (servers and switches), EMC (data storage) and VMware (virtualisation software).

Hosting a vBlock requires power capacity of around 80watts per square foot at minimum, Giunta said.