Digital Sense plans two massive data centres

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 04:36

IT Industry - Market

"At the same time they don’t have the skills, resources or space to house and manage this equipment themselves, so they need to find suitable facilities to host their business-critical systems. Aside from the initial challenges of finding a secure site, well removed from obvious hazards like bushfires and flight paths, and located close enough to a power grid that can supply the power we need to keep the equipment running reliably – we then have the not-so-small issue of keeping that equipment cool and ensuring adequate resilience for any eventuality."

Digital Sense says it conducted extensive research at some of the world’s largest high-density data centres in the United States to get a better understanding of the logistics required to design, build and operate a similar facility in Australia.
 
"We discovered that capacities of 30-to-40 kilowatts per rack would be very feasible in the next two to three years, said Tran. "That’s why it’s so important to get the right mix of infrastructure from the start. The more expensive it is to power and cool the equipment, the more expensive the operating costs. Making the wrong infrastructure choices at the design stage can potentially cripple a high-density data centre in the long run."
 
Construction has already started on Digital Sense’s Kenmore data centre, which will be open for business later this year. Data Centre City, still in the planning stages, is expected to come online sometime in 2008, the company said.