Vocus steers clear of Brisbane E3 fallout

Data centre operator Vocus told iTnews today that it anticipates "no issue" with rival builder NextDC, despite an apparent falling out between NextDC founder Bevan Slattery and Vocus' new data centre chief Jon Eaves.

iTnews reported yesterday that Eaves and NextDC fell out over stalled negotiations for Eaves' Brisbane Pegasus data centre to remain a tenant of 20 Wharf Street, Brisbane – a building NextDC had acquired in August last year.

The negotiations were blamed for a last-minute move of Eaves' Brisbane data centre from Wharf Street to the Brisbane suburb of Milton, causing headaches for customers.

Eaves' Brisbane data centre was the only facility owned by E3 Networks that was not purchased when Vocus bought E3 for $5.9 million in late October last year.

Vocus snapped up E3's Sydney and Melbourne data centres and retained E3 founder Eaves' services for four days a week.

Eaves' remaining time was spent on his other businesses – the remaining Brisbane data centre and a hosting business, Dedicated Servers.

Vocus chief James Spenceley told iTnews that Vocus did not buy E3's Brisbane data centre in October, partly out of disinterest and also as a result of due diligence performed on the facility.

"Without going into large amounts of detail, it wasn't a business we were interested in," Spenceley told iTnews.

"It was the first data centre they [E3] built and it wasn't up to the standard we were looking at.

"There were a number of things we were a little concerned about with that facility".

Spenceley believed that any "sparks" between Eaves and NextDC were limited to Brisbane and would not carry over into competition between Vocus and NextDC in the data centre space.

Spenceley said that Vocus had no plans to enter the Brisbane data centre market, where NextDC was due to open its first of several facilities planned nationwide, quashing speculation over whether or not Vocus might eventually buy up the rest of Eaves' data centre assets.

"I think Brisbane is going to be well serviced by NextDC," Spenceley said.

"I think he's [Slattery] got the right location. The model up there has always been that people prefer a CBD [data centre] location. And up until now there really hasn't been a carrier-grade or tier 3 data centre in the [Brisbane] CBD".

Spenceley said Vocus had been in discussions with NextDC to become a customer of the Brisbane data centre when it opened in March of this year.

He also said that Vocus had commissioned - and received - an independent report on the Sydney and Melbourne data centres it acquired from E3 following a power outage at the Melbourne site in December.

He told iTnews that Vocus had surveyed the two sites in detail down to "walking through [examining] every piece of cable".

Vocus has installed on a new generator in Melbourne and has both its data centre sites running with redundant plant.