NextDC opens $100m Adelaide data centre
The tech company has kicked open the doors on its 17th Australian data centre, a $100m investment in Adelaide’s CBD.
NextDC has opened a $100m data centre in Adelaide, its 17th in Australia, as the market continues to heat up.
It comes as its rival AirTurnk, which was founded by NextDC’s former deputy chief Robin Khuda, is set to be sold for $23bn to private equity giant Blackstone and its Canadian partner.
NextDC’s newest opening is targeting government, space, health, mining and defence customers in a data centre with a 5MW capacity with 3000sq m of IT space. It has a rack capacity of 1470 and 2922sq m of technical space.
It also has artificial intelligence certification and is built to handle advanced and quantum computing requirements.
Craig Scroggie, NextDC chief executive, said: “The A1 facility is Adelaide’s first Uptime Institute Tier IV-certified data centre which will play a pivotal role in accelerating digital innovation and preparing South Australia to take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution powered by the development and adoption of AI.”
Mr Scroggie said the NextDC was looking to capitalise as an increasing number of global tech companies target Adelaide as a growth city.
NextDC’s newest investment falls in line with a growing trend wherein data centres are popping closer and closer to the centre of a city.
South Australian Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said the new data centre was evidence of a growing tech economy in his city.
“NextDC’s A1 represents a key advancement for South Australia’s digital economy, providing numerous large-scale investment opportunities for local and global organisations seeking to leverage our state as a platform for economic growth, innovation and development,” he said.
“The South Australian business and government sectors will be able to substantially improve the resilience of their digital products and services offered to citizens, customers and partners, further strengthening our Digital Strategy to enable every South Australian to live and thrive in the digital world.”
NextDC began working with Invest SA several years ago to support the launch of the new data centre.
ItInvest SA executive director Chris Wood said it was “exciting to see this state-of-the-art data centre come to fruition”.
“The data centre will underpin South Australia’s critical technologies ecosystem and expand the state’s digital infrastructure, helping us to make our economy more complex while creating important jobs for South Australians,” he said.
Vocus was also a major partner which would connect its fibre network through the new data centre.
Its outgoing chief executive Ellie Sweeney, who is set to join NBN as its new boss, said the new data centre was critical in ensuring South Australian business could innovate.
“The A1 Adelaide data centre is another pivotal intersection in the Vocus and NEXTDC footprint that is delivering high-capacity fibre networks and high-capacity data centres for communities and industry across South Australia and beyond,” she said.
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