Macquarie Data Centres breaks ground on IC3

Macquarie Telecom subsidiary Macquarie Data Centres has broken ground on a new data centre in Sydney within the Macquarie Park Innovation District.

The Intellicentre 3 East (IC3 East) data centre will be built with an initial investment of around $80 million, and is scheduled to be complete within the second half of next year.

Macquarie Data Centres plans to target the facility at hyperscale and SaaS providers as well as global enterprises looking to establish or expand their presence in Sydney’s growing technology hub.

The IC3 East will have multiple industry certifications at launch, including Uptime Institute Tier III and ISO 27001 certifications, as well as a five-star NABERS energy efficiency rating with a power usage effectiveness number of just 1.28.

Together with the planned accompanying IC3 West expansion, the new facility will increase the total capacity of the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus to 43 MW.

Macquarie Data Centres Group Executive David Hirst said the Intellicentre 3 facility will be built to build on the company’s security credentials, which are already trusted by 42% of Australian federal government agencies.

“Sovereignty, cybersecurity and compliance standards are more vital than ever to protect the data and infrastructure of businesses in Australia. Our 18-year data centre experience and security posture make IC3 an ideal inroad for US and other multinational companies to enter the thriving Australian market,” he said.

“The scale of this facility recognises the increased demand across both our co-location and dedicated multi-megawatt IT loads,” Hirst added. “IC3 has been designed to meet the specific technical requirements of global multinational businesses whilst offering the highest security standards required of the Australian federal government.”

Macquarie Data Centres estimates that the IC3 will create approximately 1200 jobs in construction, engineering and architecture. FDC Construction has been selected to complete the construction using 250,000 kilometres of cable to be built into the facility.