By Celsias team
A new energy efficient colocation data centre in Christchurch is aiming to reduce costs and create a cooperative-style marketplace for ICT businesses.
The Colocation Company director Jamie Cairns says power-saving cooling technology has made it much more affordable for users to locate servers and ICT equipment at the data centre, reducing server hosting, networking and storage costs.
Located in the former Lane Walker Rudkin clothing factory in Sydenham, the facility uses ambient air temperature to cool water in closed-circuit pipes, enabling micro-climate control for each of the 14 data pods.
“This free-cooling enables us to operate more than 80 percent of the time very economically and with greatly reduced energy demand. The upshot is clients paying for electricity to run their gear, but avoiding high cooling costs often incurred in older centres,” explains Cairns.
But Cairns says it’s not just about lowering costs. By providing a neutral playing field for both providers and clients, The Colocation Company aims to create an ICT equivalent of a farmers’ market.
“Once a company is in the facility, it will be able to subscribe to services offered by providers at the location with very cheap connection costs. These could be internet, security, backup, integration or voice service providers, to name a few.”
The Colocation Company is a multi-million dollar project by the founders of Snap Internet. Snap is one of the centre’s first clients along with local ICT integrator Computer Concepts and other high-profile local hosting and service companies. The cost of locating equipment is 61c per KWh consumed.
The Colocation Company’s manager Ian Falconer says there is capacity for 224 racks in 14 self-contained pods, each with individual air temperature and humidity controls. Each pod houses clients’ network, server and storage gear in a protected state from below 5Kw rack density up to 30Kw. Design and operating efficiency mean smaller users can afford to utilise a given space under the same secure conditions as high-volume users.
“The flow-on benefit is the ability to operate their core business with greater efficiency in what is a very price-competitive market.”
Image by Fabian Winiger
