Digital Realty's data centres to inject $250 million in the NSW economy

Marina Freri
Wednesday, 19 October 2011 14:41

US based data centre provider, Digital Realty Trust, claims its two Sydney's data centre developments will inject about $250 million in the NSW economy.

Digital Realty is fairly new to the Australian market, with the company having bought its first development site at Erskine Park, in Western Sydney, only last July. But in less than four months the company has multiplied its presence, having two data centres developments in both Sydney and Melbourne's outskirts.

Today the company claimed its facility in Western Sydney would boost the state's economy. Digital Realty regional head for Asia Pacific, Kris Kumar, said the data centres would positively impact on NSW finances, generating about 250 new jobs and revenue from development costs predicted to be in excess of $200 million.

'In addition to direct expenditure totalling nearly $250 million, we believe there will be a ripple effect on regional businesses, further benefiting Western Sydney,' he said. 'There is also potential for training and skills development for employees in the data centre industry.'

In Sydney, Digital Realty announced in July that it had acquired a 3.48 hectare development site in Erskine Park for $10.7 million and announced plans for approximately 18,600 square metres of data centre development with over 11.5MW of IT capacity. It said construction of the first two centres with a combined area of 9,300 square metres would start in late 2011.

Today the company said it had gained building permits in Western Sydney and that construction of the two initial 9,300 square metre data centres would start immediately. Kumar said Digital Realty was consolidating its presence in Australia and established its headquarters in NSW.

"We are actively engaged in discussions with a number of serious prospects for our Australian data centres,' he said. 'Meanwhile, we have established our headquarters in North Sydney and have built our Australian operating platform with the addition of several new local team members'.

Digital Realty's expansion into Australia confirms the predictions made public today by research and advisory company Gartner, which claimed Australian spending on data centre hardware would increase by 8.8 percent by the end of 2011 and that more larger structures would take over small and medium sized centres.