Macquarie Telecom to invest $60 million in new Sydney data centre

Macquarie Telecom (ASX:MAQ) has announced plans to invest $60 million in building a new data centre following its recent purchase of an existing building and a block of land in North Ryde, Sydney.

The managed hosting and business telecommunications provider paid $10.8 million for the building and two hectares of land, and will inject a further $49 million into the development of the new data centre facility, including mechanical, electrical, plant and equipment needs.

The planned “Intellicentre 2” data centre at the site will help facilitate growth in the company's hosting business.

According to Macquarie Hosting managing director and Macquarie Telecom co-founder, Aidan Tudehope, Intellicentre 2 would support both its corporate and government customers’ future needs.

It will also be accredited to ASIO T4, Defence Signals Directorate standards, Payment Card Industry (PCI DSS) standard and ISO27001.

Tudehope also noted that North Ryde site was chosen because of its range of the telecommunications supply and power infrastructure essential to the development of the multi-redundant data facility and its proximity to Macquarie Telecom’s customer base.

Construction of the Intellicentre 2 is expected to be completed in late 2011.