NT to receive $80 million data centre

Development has begun on the $80 million D1 Darwin data centre facility, which is scheduled for completion and launch in June 2024. Built by technology company NEXTDC in collaboration with Kapitol Group, D1 Darwin should create more than 200 jobs in the region for the duration of construction and into the daily operation of the facility.

“As our flagship data centre in NT, D1 Darwin forms part of NEXTDC’s strategy to leverage the next frontier of edge computing and for the region, it is a big step towards national digital equity,” said NEXTDC CEO Craig Scroggie.

“Its proximity to Darwin’s CBD and direct access to the major submarine cable infrastructure means legacy industries such as mining and resources alongside the emerging defence sector can have real-time responsiveness to operational and mission-critical needs, fully capturing the value of emerging technologies.”

NEXTDC is partnering with the Northern Territory Government to accelerate the region’s economic development through investment in technological infrastructure and advancements. With its projected capacity of 8 MW, D1 Darwin will contribute to the NT’s Digital Territory Action Plan by providing crucial infrastructure for the state’s growing digital industry — and, more broadly, contributing to its $40bn 2030 economic outlook.

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Natasha Fyles said that getting the construction of D1 Darwin underway was an exciting step for the future of NT’s digital economy, enabling many organisations in the region to activate their digital transformation strategies.

“Offering uninterrupted critical connectivity and cloud services to Northern Territory businesses and government will significantly boost the capability of what they are offering to their customers and stakeholders,” she said.

Australian fibre and network solutions provider Vocus is also partnering with NEXTDC at the D1 facility, integrating its Terabit Territory fibre network within the data centre to connect secure, high-capacity networks to the region.

“D1 Darwin is a critical infrastructure facility which will play an integral role in Vocus’s network investments — supporting all levels of government as well as enterprise customers in the resources sector,” said Vocus CEO Ellie Sweeney.

“D1 Darwin will establish a major data centre in Australia’s north connecting to Vocus’s new Darwin–Jakarta–Singapore Cable submarine system, which lands our secure digital infrastructure in Perth, Port Hedland, Darwin and South-East Asia,” she said.

For more details about D1 Darwin, visit: https://www.nextdc.com/data-centres/darwin-data-centres.

Image credit: iStock.com/gorodenkoff