Construction on new data centre for Newcastle and Hunter region kicks off

Construction of the new Leading Edge Data Center facility in Mayfield West has begun.

The $20 million data center project, developed in partnership with Ausgrid, will boost jobs, create much-needed network infrastructure and strengthen the digital economy of the Newcastle and the greater Hunter region.

Chief executive officer of Leading Edge Data Centers Chris Thorpe said the groundbreaking was a significant milestone for regional cities.

"This is a great leap forward towards our Hunter project which will provide the same internet and direct cloud connectivity as any other metropolitan city," he says.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes has welcomed the opportunity for 130 new jobs in the Newcastle region.

"This construction and expansion of IT infrastructure will support the local community, as well as provide new opportunities for economic growth for local businesses. It's another example of how the City of Newcastle is creating a smart, global city under the Newcastle Smart City Strategy," says Nelmes.

 The construction is in partnership with Ausgrid, who are providing the land, access to the electrical network, and fibre infrastructure at Mayfield West.

Ausgrid is the largest distributor of electricity on Australia's east coast and provides power to 1.8 million households and businesses across 22,000 square kilometres covering Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter Valley.

Ausgrid chief customer officer, Rob Amphlett Lewis says Ausgrid is delighted to support this project which is aligned to its business purpose of connecting communities and empowering lives.

"It's more important than ever before for our communities to be connected," Lewis says.

"By collaborating with our partners like Leading Edge Data Centers, Ausgrid not only ensures reliable power for customers, but also supports reliable access to the data their technology relies upon.

The company announced the project back at the start of July, marking the inception of a wider roll-out of a Tier-3 Edge Data Center network across New South Wales.

The facility will provide direct cloud access to all the major cloud environments in Newcastle for the first time, reducing the need for local enterprises to be connected to Metro Sydney. The infrastructure will provide faster connectivity for local businesses and will drive innovation and job growth for the region.

 Leading Edge Data Centers rollout is rapidly expanding over 14 regions in NSW over the next 12 months. DA approval has been given by Newcastle Council to open a data center in Newcastle Airport.

Planning is also well advanced on the expansion of the Edge data center network into regional locations in Victoria and Queensland.