Greg Boorer (CEO of CDC)
Australia's Canberra Data Centres (CDC) will develop two hyperscale datacentres on development sites in Auckland, New Zealand.
An announcement this morning from CDC's major shareholder, Infratil, does not mention Microsoft or its intention to establish a cloud availability region in New Zealand, announced earlier this month, but CDC provides those facilities for Microsoft in Australia.
As reported by Reseller News, CDC also registered a local subsidiary in New Zealand in February.
The datacentres, picked to cost NZ$80-$100 million to develop, will have the capacity in the near term of up to a total of 20MW and additional vacant land which can be progressively developed to support expected demand from new and existing customers, CDC said.
"The expansion allows CDC to meet demand from existing customers for datacentre facilities in New Zealand and represents an extension of CDC’s existing secure co-location data centre ecosystem to New Zealand," the company said.
"In this way, CDC will continue to follow its strategy of providing highly secure, reliable and flexible datacentre services to leading government and commercial clients across broader geographies."
Local cloud availability regions are important for many customers needing to keep sensitive data on-shore, especially government agencies and other critical verticals such as banking and communications.
CDC is 48 per cent owned by NZX-listed Infratil.
It has also appears New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs played a key role in winning the investment.
Chris Webb, general manager of cloud services for DIA, the lead agency for digital government, updated his LinkedIn profile recently, noting that uptake of cloud had slowed in government due to issues related to only having capability available from offshore.
"This role is leading the initiative to bring a hyperscale cloud provider to New Zealand," his profile says.
"Working across government with multiple stakeholders and the market. Engaging with Microsoft global, regional and local leadership and team to explore the case for New Zealand and their due diligence.
"Establishing the engagement strategy for New Zealand government and leading the engagement with Microsoft and government agencies."
Reseller News has requested an interview.
