Macquarie Telecom to expand Canberra data centre

Macquarie Telecom will begin an expansion of its Intellicentre 4 bunker data centre in Canberra within weeks, with the new capacity to be brought online by early next year.

Managing director of hosting and government Aidan Tudehope told iTnews two-thirds of the expansion would involve fitting out a current "shell" building already at the site, while another third of the new footprint would take the form of an entirely new building on the site.

Tudehope declined to provide details of the financial investment into the expansion, or of the existing and future footprint, citing government security concerns. 

Macquarie said in a statement the expansion would see site capacity increase by 50 percent.

Announced in 2012 and brought online in 2014, Intellicentre 4 is used as a secure gateway for government agencies connecting to the internet, as the host for government-oriented cloud services, and colocation space for agencies.

"This new investment is about growing the footprint of the data centre to support where customers want colocation linked to their cybersecurity and cloud needs," Tudehope said.

The company said the expansion of the existing site is "the first stage of a plan that could quadruple the centre's footprint in response to growing demand".

Tudehope said stage two and beyond would involve construction on adjacent land, and that some preliminary designs had been undertaken.

"There's always a lot more detail when you build, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity," he said.

"[Intellicentre 4 is] far from being [air] conditioned real estate."