Robin Khuda (AirTrunk)
Hyperscale data centre provider AirTrunk has launched the first phase of its second Sydney data centre, SYD2.
The initial opening of the data centre, which is the first out of four phases, sees SYD2 offering cloud service providers customised and scale capacity from Sydney’s north.
When all four phases are complete, the facility will offer over 110MW in capacity, making it one of the largest single-campus data centres in the Asia Pacific region, the provider claimed.
ARN understands that the new data centre was first announced in 2019 and initially planned to be opened in 2020, but the beginning of construction was delayed due to customer demand requiring capacity for March this year. The actual construction itself however wasn’t delayed, which took 35 weeks.
AirTrunk CEO Rob Khuda said the opening was another milestone for the company.
“Throughout the Asia-Pacific region we’re delivering hyperscale data centre campuses at accelerated speed to enable the growth of the digital economy,” he said.
Credit: AirTrunk The new data centre is powered by a dedicated 200MVA 132kV substation with a power usage effectiveness of 1.15, which is achieved in part through a cooling solution that utilises real-time weather data analysis.
In fact, the provider claims the cooling solution is its most energy-efficient deployment to date.
“AirTrunk is committed to championing sustainability and our team are constantly innovating to improve data centre efficiency,” said AirTrunk CTO Damien Spillane.
“We’re designing hyperscale data centres, like SYD2, that are significantly more energy efficient than traditional on-premise data centres, reducing total emissions and the impact on the environment.”
The opening of SYD2 brings AirTrunk’s data centre count up to five, with its total capacity in Australia set to rise to over 370MW when completed, following the 2017 launches of facilities in Sydney and Melbourne.
SYD2’s opening also comes nearly a year after AirTrunk looked to ramp up its expansion across the Asia Pacific region after Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) closed an acquisition deal for an 88 per cent stake in the company back in April 2020.
Article updated on 24 March at 10:20am to reflect that the delay was due to customer demand requiring capacity for March this year, rather than the COVID-19 pandemic
