Vocus readies $7m Melbourne data centre

Vocus Communications will open the first stage of its new $7 million Melbourne data centre in September.

CEO James Spenceley told the CommsDay Wholesale & Data Centre Summit in Sydney the firm will build out the two-room, 1280 square metre facility in three stages.

The facility will sit on level three of the former ASX building at 530 Collins Street in Melbourne's CBD, which is also home to AAPT and Melbourne Datacenter data centres.

Spenceley told iTnews stage one is now expected to have 150 racks, with the total facility to house about 400 racks when complete.

iTnews reported in March that the facility would start with 105 racks.

"When it's finally full and fitted out, [Collins Street] will be about a $7 million facility," he said, noting the building's prior use as an ASX facility meant existing infrastructure — including "pipework and chilled water loops" could be reused.

The facility will use APC racks in hot-aisle containment with in-row cooling configuration.

Although each rack is capable of supporting densities up to 30 kW, Spenceley expected loads to be closer to the "four to five kilowatts" per rack seen in Vocus' data centre in Alexandria, south of Sydney.

Spenceley said he expected Collins Street to achieve a power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.3.

Vocus already has a data centre presence in Melbourne in NextDC as well as a currently-full facility in Port Melbourne.

The company also launched an iOS app, Vocus View, which can be used to control rack holdings within the Collins Street facility.