Data centre facility expansion for North Ryde

Macquarie Telecom  has exchanged contracts to purchase 2 hectares (215,000 square feet) of land and an existing building in North Ryde for $10.8 million, to accommodate its new data centre facility.

The transaction follows Macquarie Telecom’s continued strong growth in its Hosting business. The FSR (floor space ratio) of the site allows for the potential to build plant and raised floor of 215,000 square feet, securing Macquarie Telecom’s future hosting capacity needs.

The North Ryde site was chosen due to the diversity of telecommunications supply and power infrastructure crucial to the development of a state-of-the-art, multiredundant data centre facility. The North Ryde business precinct also offers proximity to Macquarie Telecom’s current and future customer base and complements its existing Sydney CBD data centre.

Commenting on the announcement, Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Hosting, said: “Our Sydney CBD data centre remains the most highly accredited data centre in Australia and this same focus on operational excellence will be applied to our new North Ryde data centre. This new facility will support both our corporate and government customers’ future needs. It will be accredited to ASIO T4, Defence Signals Directorate standards, Payment Card Industry (PCI DSS) standard and ISO27001.”

In addition to the $10.8 million land and building purchase, phase one of the project will see a further $49 million invested into mechanical, electrical, plant and equipment needs. $30 million of this investment will be made over the next 12 months, replacing prior guidance of $15 million given for fiscal 2011.

The new data centre, Intellicentre 2, is scheduled to be completed in late 2011.