Monday 10 August 2020

New Data Centre Paves the Way For 130 New Jobs and Better Data Security in Newcastle

BY ISABEL EVERETT 

Construction on the Leading Edge Data Centre facility in Mayfield West begins on Monday, set to create 130 new jobs in the region. 

Its hoped the centre will strengthen data security for companies across Newcastle and the Hunter and attract more businesses to the area. 

CEO of Leading Edge Data Centres Chris Thorpe said the beginning of construction is a significant milestone. 

“This is a great leap forward towards our Hunter project which will provide the same internet and direct cloud connectivity as any other metropolitan city,” Mr. Thorpe said.

"Data centres provide a safe, secure environment for companies to house their IT infrastructure, and it really attracts large enterprises to come into the region, because finally there's a world class facility in Newcastle." 

"Data security is paramount at the moment, and this enables Newcastle to hold their data locally, rather than store it back in Sydney or other environments where you can struggle to pin point where data is actually held."  

Mr Thorpe says the new centre will allow for emerging technologies, such as the 5G network and virtual reality technologies to better function in the area. 

"Its about having processing power close to the user, so it reduces the time it takes for data to move back and forth."

"There's a lot of new technologies just coming through, that require close to zero latency, within three or four milliseconds the action has to happen."

Construction is expected to be complete by December 5th 2021, with all of the prefabricated builds occurring just outside of Newcastle. 

The construction is in partnership with Ausgrid, who are providing the land, access to the electrical network, and fibre infrastructure at Mayfield West.

DA approval has been given by Newcastle Council for Leading Edge Data Centres to open a data centre in Newcastle Airport, with the company also looking another 2 sites in the Hunter.