Data Exchange Network modules
Data Exchange Networks (DXN) has unveiled its $7.5-million Sydney data centre six months later than its planned launch date.
The data centre operator officially opened the 1.0MW data centre on 16 August and handed it over to operations team to kick-start usage.
The centre was constructed in a four-month timeframe after delayed development approvals prevented DXN from making its initial completion of February this year.
As such, commercial construction work of the 4,351 metre-squared facility only began on 17 April this year.
“Our module manufacturing team joined forces with our Sydney construction team to effectively deliver a leading-edge data centre in an incredibly short time frame,” Simon Forth, DXN COO said. “The rapid delivery of the project is a testament to our modular design."
Although the core supporting infrastructure is built and operational, the centre is awaiting an Uptime Institute audit, due later this month, to gain its Tier-III status.
Initially, the centre, known as DXN-SYD01, will have 400kW capacity and, once at capacity, will have room for up to 1000 high-density racks and 6MW of IT load available. The publicly-listed company told shareholders it expects to announce the first customer rack sales in the near future.
The Sydney centre, as well as a second Melbourne centre, were built to be 0.5MW operations, costing around $4.34 million each, and later revised to $4.89 million.
However, DXN later decided to upgrade the centres to 1.0MW in line with its Tier-Ready III and Tier-Ready IV Uptime Institute certification, causing costs to spiral to $15 million for both centres.
Completion of the Melbourne centre — also earmarked for early 2019 — was also delayed until later this year.
The announcement follows DXN’s appointment of former Kordia Solutions executive Matthew Madden as its new CEO following the departure of Peter Christie.
Forth was subsequently named interim co-CEO alongside Richard Whiting, DXN's CCO, following Christie’s exit.
