NEXTDC Plans New Facilities in Australia

Bevan Slattery, the founder of PIPE Networks, is launching a new company to build a network of carrier neutral data centres in major Australian markets. NEXTDC has acquired sites in Melbourne and Brisbane for its first two facilities, and hopes to have initial phases of 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet) in the next 12 months.

"I believe there has been no better time to invest in premium data centres than now," said Slattery. "With the unprecedented growth in internet traffic, data consumption and storage throughout the world combined with the incredible demand for power and cooling, legacy data centres cannot cope with the requirements nor deliver the energy efficiency benefits that a purpose built greenfield data centre can."

The initial facilities in Melbourne and Brisbane will be funded by Slattery, and will sit on sites large enough to support eventual expansion to between 5,000 and 10,000 square meters (54,000 to 108,000 square feet). NEXTDC plans to offer some of the highest power densities in the Australian data centre market, with flexbile data center suite designs. The company plans to share further details of its product and service
offerings in the next 6 to 8 weeks.

In its announcement NEXTDC noted that industry analysts in Australia and New Zealand are forecasting strong demand for data centre capacity, particularly outside Sydney, which is historically the leading Australian IT market. The company notes growth potential in cities including Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland, New Zealand.

"I am excited to launch NEXTDC which will revolutionise the Australian data centre market and deliver significant benefits to our customers," said Slattery. "We will deliver leading edge data centres that are purpose built facilities with full concrete construction.

"These data centres will deploy some of the smartest technologies designed to empower our customers and also reduce their carbon footprint," he added. "Not to put too fine a point on it, our data centres will be all concrete bunkers, with very smart brains and a green heart. That is our mission."