AirTrunk announces first APAC datacentre in Western Sydney
AirTrunk datacentre facility in Huntingwood, NSW.
AirTrunk has on Wednesday unveiled its first Asia Pacific datacentre in Western Sydney, New South Wales.
The datacentre is being built atop of 64,000sqm of floor space in Huntingwood, with planned total capacity of more than 80MW.
After 44 weeks, AirTrunk has completed phase one of development, which cost more than AU$200 million, the company told ZDNet. Phase two is currently underway.
"It will be one of the largest carrier neutral datacentres in the region, housing mission critical infrastructure for some of the world's biggest companies," AirTrunk said in an announcement.
The company claims the datacentre has been designed to comply with the Australian government's high security requirements and is the "first step" in its wider growth strategy across the Asia Pacific region.
The company is also building a datacentre in Melbourne, with planned total capacity of more than 50MW.
AirTrunk is unfazed by competitors such as Equinix, Metronode, and NextDC, saying that its focus is on "hyperscale cloud and content providers".
"Given we're a hyperscale datacentre, we're focusing on tech giants that produce large quantities of data," a spokesperson from AirTrunk said.
Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said the investment in the datacentre is a sign of confidence that "technology businesses belong in Western Sydney".
"We're delighted AirTrunk has chosen Western Sydney for this massive investment -- building this centre has created around 300 jobs and 180 more people will be employed here permanently once operational," the minister said in a statement.
San Francisco-based company Digital Realty earlier this month announced its SYD11 datacentre in Western Sydney, which is expected to be completed in around 12 months. SYD11 will be Digital Realty's fourth build and fifth datacentre in Australia, with one added via acquisition in 2013. It will be the company's third datacentre in New South Wales, with the other two taking up space in Victoria.
Nasdaq-listed datacentre company Equinix also has datacentres in Sydney and Melbourne. Its Sydney-based datacentres, which comprises SY1, SY2, SY3, and SY4, can set up direct links to the continent's two largest internet peering points, in addition to key submarine cable systems, including the Southern Cross Cable Head, the PIPE Pacific Cable, and the impending Hawaiki cable, which will terminate in SY4.
Equinix has been expanding its datacentres across the Asia Pacific region to meet demand for additional capacity and interconnection services.
Another datacentre operator Metronode similarly announced plans to expand its facilities in Melbourne, Sydney, and Wollongong -- investing AU$150 million for the expansion.
Australian-listed NextDC, which has facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, is also expanding its footprint in Australia. Its AU$75 million datacentre in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane is on track for completion by the end of 2017, while its AU$85 million datacentre in Tullamarine, Melbourne is similarly expected to be ready by the end of the year.
Development of NextDC's second datacentre in Sydney -- with a target capacity of 30MW -- has been approved under a 45-year "ground lease arrangement", and development is currently underway.