Vertiv has completed construction of Redland City Council’s new data centre which took a total of four months to complete.
Redland City’s new data centre is a 42-square-metre, self-contained facility with a 10-rack capacity. It is installed with power, cooling and racks from Vertiv.
The council first approached Vertiv and Peak Services for a modular data centre design to replace its ageing primary and secondary data centres. The council’s old infrastructure was approaching end-of-life and becoming increasingly inefficient and expensive to operate.
Vertiv’s modular data centre for Redland City uses a steel-framed, double-skinned, insulated construction designed specifically to take the weight of specialist data room equipment. The facility is also fire-rated and structurally certified.
Redland City CIO, Glynn Henderson, said that aside from moving to a well-ventilated area, the new data centre space is also more compact.
Henderson anticipates a 30 per cent reduction in electricity costs and 70 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions due to the use of more efficient plant and equipment.
“That’s really important because we’re a very eco-focused city,” he said.
Being a coastal council, Redland City can also be involved in coordinating an emergency response to natural disasters such as fires or storms.
“One of the great things about having a compliant and highly resilient data centre is the ability to react quickly around disaster management. That’s a big thing for us,” Henderson said.
Vertiv ANZ managing director, Robert Linsdell, said there is plenty of hype about smart cities and IoT but it’s important to consider what infrastructure is needed to pull it off.
“Redland City understands this, and is taking the steps now to make sure it can do the exciting part in the right way later,” he said.
Peak Services information manager William Osborne said councils are different from other entities in that they spend public money so they need to be transparent and demonstrate value for money.
“From a supplier perspective, we keep costs down by looking at efficiencies in production, manufacturing, delivery and commissioning,” Osborne said.