MacTel opens second Canberra data centre

Macquarie Telecom has opened a new data centre in Canberra to serve Federal Government agencies.

Built by Macquarie's data centre business, the $17 million facility falls under the Digital Transformation Agency’s sovereign data centre designation making it suitable for the most sensitive government workloads.

Called Intellicentre 5 (IC5) the facility is Macquarie's second data centre in Canberra and is in the same complex as the existing IC4, bringing total capacity in the Australian capital to four megawatts. The company has an additional three facilities in Sydney.

The project was first announced in July 2020 and will serve the company’s growing government business Macquarie Government. It adds to the capacity and adds secure offsite backup from the existing IC4 centre.

Macquarie said the new data centre is “a fully sovereign ecosystem in terms of supply chain, staff, and data access and storage”.

“Data and cloud demand has skyrocketed as the pandemic continues to bring forward years’ worth of IT and digital transformation projects,”Macquarie Data Centres chief David Hirst said in a statement.

“Ensuring that data remains secure, sovereign and within Australia’s borders is vital to protecting our national security and privacy interests – this facility embodies that need in every way.”

Macquarie employed Australian construction company Manteena on the project which has previously completed projects for the Australian Department of Defence and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The company said it used only Australian companies for the design, build and fit out of the data centre. Queanbeyan-based SRA Solutions provided data centre racks for IC5.

Macquarie said the build involved four kilometres of underground electrical conduit, 15 tons of copper in the main cables, and generators powerful enough to run 400 homes.

The company said the data centre was a boon for Macquarie’s Government business, which counts 42 per cent of Australian Federal and State government agencies as customers.

Macquarie Government boss Aidan Tudehope said in a statement that Government agencies could not risk having “all their data eggs in one basket”.

“Canberra needs greater diversity in its balance of data storage, protection and management, and the Australian Government wants greater competition in the local market that supports Government agencies," he said.