Gavin Kawalsky – Project Director – Macquarie Data Centres
AREA3 is proud to announce the launch of a newly constructed Tier IV, SCEC Zone 5 ready data centre, purpose-built to house secure information for the Australian government.
Built to compliment the existing IC4 centre, the new facility offers further capacity for Government cloud workloads and an additional secure facility to back up sensitive data.
The state-of-the-art facility features the latest physical and virtual security and compliance credentials required to manage highly classified Government cloud workloads.
Sustainability was also a key aspect of the project, including the use of solar and other renewables throughout the facilities operation.
Timeframe
The deadline for this greenfield build was only 25 weeks, with comparable projects often having a programme length of over 40 weeks.
Supply chain uncertainty
Industrial action and coronavirus both contributed to supply chain issues and difficulty in sourcing essential materials.
COVID-19
Coronavirus and government-enforced social distancing measures meant that almost all meetings had to be done remotely.
Electrical capacity
The electrical supply to the data centre needed to be increased to four times its current capacity, which is a significant undertaking in itself.
Security and compliance
The build had to be constructed to strict SCEC (Security Construction and Equipment Committee) guidelines to ensure security levels were appropriate given the sensitive nature of the data to be stored.
Sustainability
There was a significant green element to the project to offset the vast power usage of the centre, with the entirety of the available roof space being harnessing photo voltaic solar cells.
Redundancy
As well as the primary power source, two safeguards were required to power the entire facility in case of a power outage, which have the ability to be fully operational and supply 1MW of power immediately.
Risk mitigation
To prevent potential hold-ups in delivery, contingency plans were developed for any at-risk aspects of the programme. We also facilitated the delivery of an accelerated proposal from a key supplier to ensure the deadline was met.
People-focused
We were able to leverage existing relationships with key consultants and contractors in order to increase the efficiency of communication. All regular meetings had a high attendance and buy-in, enabling decisions to be made at rapid pace.
Cohesion
We focused on creating open, clear lines of communication, creating transparency and enabling the client to have all information within reach at all times, in order to make informed decisions at speed. Virtual meetings and online communication platforms were used very successfully to facilitate this.
Consultative approach
The varied backgrounds of our team members, and their differing experiences allow them to contribute solutions to issues the client may not have considered previously. We always encourage these sorts of discussions, not just internally but with our clients and contractors.
Early access
We planned the delivery of IC5 with a view to enabling access for the tenant to begin the instal of their hardware a month before our works had been completed, allowing the centre to be operational earlier than expected.
Following the highly successful launch of Stage 1 of Global Switch Sydney East, we chose to extend our relationship with AREA3 from Stage 1 into Stages 2 and 3 due to their professionalism, knowledge of mission-critical infrastructure projects, and the high quality of their work
Your diligence throughout the project concept, design and construction is what helped the actual install go as smoothly as it did. You have all been a fantastic team to work with and we look forward to continuing our relationship with you all in the future.
We have found them to be very professional and thorough right from start to finish.They did a great job capturing the project requirements and were very attentive to our requirements... the new TB workshop looks amazing.
