Inner city hosting providers are finding themselves at capacity, unable to provide more than 2-3 Kilowatts per rack due to unsustainable ageing infrastructure. This has seen a push towards Data Centre establishment outside of Metro Melbourne.
OMNIconnect are taking a lead in this direction. While they do house several Data Centre’s in Melbourne CBD, they have built and established their main Data Centre in Carrum Downs at the end of the newly constructed Eastlink Freeway.
Peter Hutton, Managing director of OMNIconnect, explains the reasons for this move: “The decision to move OMNIconnect’s main offices and Data Centre to a greenfield site with ample underground power in Carrum Downs was supported by various reasons. A main concern was of course power. There is less load on the grid down here and it is easier to upgrade power whenever the need arises. There was also the advantage of ample space to expand and store our diesel generators. Really, our servers and computers need to be where it easy to get power in real estate that’s affordable, Melbourne city simply didn’t offer a practical or scalable solution.”
However, many ISP’s shy away from the idea of moving too far from the city. Perhaps the fears of connectivity or access to the city have outweighed their fear of failing power availability. Peter Hutton explains how he overcame this potential problem: “Really, there has been no issue with connectivity into Melbourne. Our Microwave links give us line of sight into the heart of the CBD and the surrounding local ranges giving us diversity into Melbourne. In addition to this, we have Fibre directly connected to a distribution hub in Melbourne. The Eastlink freeway has made access to the city simple.”
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