Adelaide tech company YourDC wins $1m contract from Naval Group Australia to store Future Submarines data

Razor wire. Guards. Futuristic hand scans. An Adelaide company has won a $1m contract to store the data for the company building our Future Submarines, and the security puts a prison to shame.

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Sensitive data underpinning Australia’s $50 billion Future Submarine program will be protected in natural-disaster proof centre, reminiscent of a maximum-security prison, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

Local tech company YourDC has been awarded a $1 million contract to construct and deliver

Naval Group Australia (NGA) a secure, dedicated, data centre space that will house sensitive secrets somewhere in the Edinburgh Parks industrial estate.

YourDC CEO Scott Hicks said the five-year-old company protects infrastructure, including large computer platforms and storage, with an American National Standard – that is the highest in Australia.

“It is the data centre standard that includes 2300 criteria that I have to maintain and that is externally audited on an annual basis by an engineering company,” Mr Hicks told the Sunday Mail.

YourDC CEO Scott Hicks and David Welling, and Australian industry specialist with Naval Group Australia at the YourDC data centre in Adelaide’s north. Picture: Tom Huntley

“We don’t get to the software layer (but) when it comes to cyber threats the biggest issue is actually protecting your castle.

“So the physical aspect is where we come into play with cyber threats.

“And that is why our facilities are unbranded and no one no one knows where they.”

Mr Hicks said there are five levels of security including guards, razor wire fences, access cards and biometric hand scans.

“All of those components we manage, and every single person that gets access to our site has to go through a police check on a biennial basis and we just control and maintain all of that access to take away all that pain for our customers.”

NGA CEO John Davis said that YourDC was selected as the preferred data centre provider following a competitive Request for Proposal process.

“Naval Group Australia is focused on creating local jobs and benefiting local businesses as we deliver the Attack Class submarines,” Mr Davis said.

“As a local business, YourDC will play a critical role in supporting Naval Group Australia as our workforce rapidly increases and our facilities expand.”

Premier Steven Marshall said the deal was another coup for South Australia.

“We are the defence state – and now local companies have unprecedented opportunities to seize work as part of the $90 billion defence investment from the Commonwealth,” he said.