news Global technology giant HP yesterday opened its colossal $119 million new datacentre in Western Sydney, revealing that it had dubbed the new facility “Aurora”.

Details of the facility were revealed in February 2011. At that stage, the project was to involve a building cost of $119 million as part of HP’s US$1 billion transformation to retire legacy assets and build new facilities. The new facility will occupy an area of more than 130,000 square metres and was previously expected to be fully operational by the end of 2011.

In a statement issued this morning, HP said its Enterprise Services division (formerly EDS) would deliver a comprehensive range of IT services from the data centre, including HP Enterprise Cloud Services, HP Government Secure Cloud Services, HP Business Continuity and Recovery Services and HP Data Center Modernisation Services.

“Businesses and governments face a growing demand from their customers and communities for new services,” HP said in a statement this morning. “To meet this demand, organisations need major IT transformations to address the challenges of aging infrastructure, underutilised IT environments, application complexity and inflexible business processes.”

“The HP Aurora Data Centre is part of HP’s global program aimed at modernising facilities to support emerging and future technologies. The next-generation data centre will enable organisations to modernise their infrastructure, applications and implement cloud computing services. With their infrastructure needs met, clients will be able to devote more resources to innovation and focus on business and government strategies.”

According to HP, the datacentre’s modular design will enable expansion of the facility, as needed, allowing new technology to be “rapidly incorporated”. “Its sustainable design supports variable power densities, and the innovative cooling technology takes greater advantage of the local climate and lessens reliance on traditional condenser-based technology,” said HP. “This results in reduced power consumption and a lower carbon footprint.”

The company has already announced several customers who will use the datacentre. For starters, engineering and infrastructure management company Downer EDI will host its technology infrastructure from Aurora, with HP to streamline the company’s existing IT facilities into a single virtual datacentre.

In addition, energy utility Origin has chosen HP to modernise its IT infrastructure to support business expansion, said, with the datacentre component to be delivered from Aurora. HP also listed rural services and automotive company Elders amongst its clients today, which will buy Enterprise Cloud Services from the company.

“Outsourcing to HP is a core part of our transformation program,” said Shaun Hughes, chief information officer, Elders, in HP’s statement. “HP’s cloud services will provide us with a robust infrastructure and service delivery model that enables us to scale up for each of our program releases when we are ready to. As a result, we can de-risk the legacy development components of our build.”

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, speaking at the launch of the datacentre, praised HP’s local investment initiative. “With the opening of this state-of-the-art datacentre, HP has demonstrated its commitment to Australia, home to one of the world’s top 10 financial centres and a growing base for multinational companies,” said Conroy. “This investment will put Australia at the forefront of the digital economy, supporting new local and regional high-tech infrastructure services.”

opinion/analysis
This is what I wrote in mid-May about HP’s new datacentre, and it still stands:

“Given the massive cutbacks HP is undertaking globally, its Australian management team is lucky to have gotten this project across the line when it did. It represents a huge investment in Australian infrastructure, and I anticipate HP will be successful in attracting many large customers inside its walls. I applaud the company’s investment in Australian infrastructure and wish it well at the launch, and as things get ‘bedded down’ in the datacentre’s operations over the next little while. Congratulations, HP!”

Congrats again to everyone at HP and its partners involved in this huge undertaking; I anticipate that this landmark infrastructure will benefit the company for many years to come. FYI also, the chap in the photos below is Alan Bennett, vice president of Enterprise Services, HP South Pacific.

Image credit: HP

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1. Michael Wyres
   Posted 14/06/2012 at 12:36 pm | Permalink | Reply

   I think they forgot to connect the power to the transformers/substations:

   http://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/16.jpg

   …can’t be too open!

   • looktall
     Posted 14/06/2012 at 1:02 pm | Permalink | Reply

     maybe it’s wireless?

     • Renai LeMay
       Posted 14/06/2012 at 1:05 pm | Permalink | Reply

       lol

     • tom
       Posted 14/06/2012 at 1:35 pm | Permalink | Reply

       4G should be enough for any datacentre…

       • Renai LeMay
         Posted 14/06/2012 at 1:55 pm | Permalink | Reply

         double lol

       • looktall
         Posted 14/06/2012 at 2:02 pm | Permalink | Reply

         it’s not about capacity though.

         it’s about capacity.

         • Michael Wyres
           Posted 14/06/2012 at 3:54 pm | Permalink | Reply

           …and triple LOL

   • djos
     Posted 14/06/2012 at 3:13 pm | Permalink | Reply

     @Michael, I believe that sub-station is for stage 2 which is in the construction phase already – site already has an 8MW feed from the grid and that sub-station will provide additional capacity (yes I work for HP).

     • Michael Wyres
       Posted 14/06/2012 at 3:54 pm | Permalink | Reply

       Sorry, I was only being jovial… :o)

       • djos
         Posted 14/06/2012 at 4:03 pm | Permalink | Reply

         :-)

2. intradasted
   Posted 14/06/2012 at 4:13 pm | Permalink | Reply

   djos:

   see article:
   http://delimiter.com.au/2012/06/14/4g-comments-taken-out-of-context-says-hockey/

   You can now commence lol’ing

   • djos
     Posted 14/06/2012 at 4:20 pm | Permalink | Reply

     yeah what a total joke!!!!

     One of the main drivers behind HP’s DC investment (btw that is only stage one of about 5 equal sized stages) is the FTTH NBN, it is a massive enabler for business big and small and HP recognises that – Im not 100% sure I should put this up but what the heck, it’s proof that the worlds largest IT company recognises the value of the NBN:

     http://db.tt/VWSAYpIi

     • seven_tech
       Posted 15/06/2012 at 2:20 am | Permalink | Reply

       Mmmm, it’ll be interesting to see what happens between these businesses, actually ALL businesses and the Coalition should they get in and use their “Alternative Broadband Policy.”

       I wonder how much guarantee these sorts of businesses are getting confidentially about the NBN? $119 Million is not that much for HP globally, but it’s a HUGE investment for Australia and relying HEAVILY on the likelihood of the NBN.

       I applaud HP for this investment. I foresee a hard road ahead for ANY government that simply pulls the rug out from under them and other businesses by repealing any large part of the NBN….

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