Otago University to become anchor customer for Datagrid data centre

Wednesday, 1 June 2022

An artist’s impression of what Datagrid’s data centre will look like once, complete.

Otago University has agreed to be an “anchor” customer for a huge data centre that will be built by Datagrid in North Makarewa in Southland.

University of Otago chief operating officer Stephen Willis said the volume of data it had to manage was expected to “explode” as a growing number of large-scale scientific projects came on stream.

Datagrid chief executive Remi Galasso expects to soon file a resource consent application for the construction of the data centre and the university hopes to start using it in 2024, under a “strategic agreement” between the company and the university.

Hawaiki Cable chief executive Remi Galasso says the combination of Hawaiki Nui (shown above) and the Humboldt Cable would open a new route connecting south-east Asia, Australasia and South America (video first published in December).

* Land bought for $1 billion bid to turn Southland into global IT hub

Datagrid expects that by 2025 its North Makarewa data centre will be connected to the United States, Australia and Asia via a 22,000 kilometre submarine cable network being designed by sister company Hawaiki.

That would allow it to also serve as a base for cloud computing services across eastern Australia.

The cost of building the data centre and the cable network are together expected to total more than $1 billion, and there are hopes the investment could significantly boost the South Island digital economy.

Datagrid hopes its data centre will also connect to South America and potentially Antarctica via another cable being considered by the Chilean government.

Otago University deputy vice-chancellor Richard Blaikie said “having a world-leading data centre ‘next door’” would help the university’s researchers stay at the forefront of their fields.

The ability to process, transfer and store enormous digital files has become increasingly vital for researchers worldwide, he said.