Victorian universities team for green data centre

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 09:58

IT Industry - Market

RMIT vice-chancellor and president Professor Margaret Gardner said "The collaboration between the three universities is an Australian first and will deliver data centre capacity at a lower cost than could be achieved independently, while securing greater flexibility and setting high standards for sustainability."

Monash senior deputy vice-chancellor and deputy vice-chancellor (research) Professor Edwina Cornish, said work on the 10-year project would start later this month. "We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously. The universities decision to partner with Fujitsu was influenced by its demonstrated innovation in sustainability and its long-term commitment to developing sustainable data centre environments."
 
University of Melbourne provost Professor John Dewar said "Our commercial, technical and legal teams have worked closely together to achieve this outcome, which brings considerable savings, the opportunity to increase data centre capacity in a more flexible and rapid way as demand increases, as well as substantial energy efficiency and sustainability."

RMIT's main campus is located in Melbourne's central business district. The university has more than 60,000 students in total.

The University of Melbourne's main campus is a short walk north of RMIT, in the inner suburb of Parkville. Melbourne's decision to adopt a US-style model (where students must obtain a generalist first degree before moving on to a postgraduate professional or research degree in a specific discipline) has met with a mixed response. Around 44,000 students are enrolled at Melbourne.

Monash University has two major campuses at Clayton and Caulfield in the south-eastern suburbs, and more than 55,000 students (more than 38,000 at Clayton and Caulfield).

Fujitsu CEO Rod Vawdrey said "Fujitsu is honoured to partner with these three prestigious Australian universities to provide advanced technologies and sustainable solutions for their data storage."

"We will keep raising the bar in terms of innovation, sustainable design, availability standards and performance of our facilities," he added.

Fujitsu was rated a 2008 world leader in the "Assessment of Global Low-Carbon and Environmental Leadership in the ICT Sector" by Gartner and the WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature).