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Macquarie Data Centres to build Sydney North facility
Macquarie Data Centres’ latest 32MW facility will come with a cyber security centre that monitors and manages cyber security events
Macquarie Data Centres is building its largest facility at its Sydney datacentre campus to meet the needs of corporate, government and multinational customers and enhance New South Wales’ cyber security infrastructure and capabilities.
Dubbed IC3 Super West, the 32MW facility, located in the Sydney North Zone, is designed to interconnect with IC3 East, bringing the total IT load of the campus to 50MW.
The company, part of the Macquarie Telecom group, said it has commenced a state significant development application process to build the new datacentre, which is expected to create more than 1,200 jobs in construction, engineering, cyber security, and other fields.
Construction of phase one of the project will start in the second half of 2023, subject to final board approvals, with planning permission expected to be granted in early 2022.
“This datacentre will attract new investment into Australia from multinationals looking to expand in the Asia-Pacific region,” said David Tudehope, CEO of Macquarie Telecom.
“The New South Wales digital economy is rapidly growing, and this project will create world-class infrastructure and valuable long-term jobs in the digital and cyber security sector.”
Besides complying with strict security standards such as Security Construction and Equipment Committee (SCEC) Zone 4 and SOC 2, IC3 will also host the Sovereign Cyber Security Centre of Excellence with a mix of physical and virtual infrastructure designed to monitor and manage cyber security events.
Read more about datacentres in Australia
- A new datacentre and connectivity project that links Perth and Darwin to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region is set to bolster digital investments in Western Australia and Northern Territory.
- Australian datacentre operator NEXTDC will buy carbon offsets to help organisations reduce their carbon footprint through a new colocation service.
- Digital Realty has opened a new datacentre in Sydney and acquired a 1.4-hectare land parcel for another upcoming facility, bringing its total investment in Australia to over A$1bn.
- Equinix will open its third facility in Perth to meet the growing demand for digital infrastructure between Australia and Asia.
The 24/7 centre with be monitored by trained engineers equipped with the latest tools, offering an Australian sovereign solution to the growing cyber security threats. This will provide vital skills development to the in-demand sector, which needs around 18,000 new workers in Australia by 2026, according to AustCyber.
“This global scale datacentre will be one of the most certified facilities in the region,” said David Hirst, group executive of Macquarie Data Centres.
“Data is growing exponentially, and we have demonstrated time and time again our ability to deliver infrastructure to meet that growth,” he said. “Our data centres are sovereign, secure and certified to manage Australia’s most important data and drive the digital economy.”
Macquarie Telecom is one of the three “strategic” datacentre operators that can provide the highest level of security for hosting government data under a hosting certification framework by Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency.
Released in March 2021, the framework will assist agencies to mitigate against supply chain and datacentre ownership risks and enable them to identify and source appropriate hosting and related services.
A strategic datacentre operator must demonstrate its ability to record, manage and mitigate supply chain risks, with key personnel vetted by an Australian government security vetting agency, among other requirements. The other two strategic operators are Canberra Data Centres and Australian Data Centres.
