The Northern Territory government has gone to market for data centre space ahead of the planned demolition of the Chan building, which currently houses its primary data centre.
The government is shifting key infrastructure from the Chan building in State Square to a new purpose-built Government Data Centre in Millner, with the older data centre intended to act as a backup facility until it is knocked down.
The Chan data centre dates back to the 1970s when the territory’s government first invested in centralised computing. The demolition of the building housing it is part of a $100 million project by the government to revitalise Darwin’s CBD.
The 2018-19 budget included funding of $3.28 million for relocating the Chan data centre.
“Revitalising the Darwin CBD includes redevelopment of State Square and demolition of the Chan Building that currently houses the data centre,” said minister for corporate and information services Lauren Moss.
“This centre supports the NT Government’s critical ICT systems and services, including business systems, email and phone services and internet presence.”
Shifting infrastructure to the new Millner data centre is taking place over a two-year period, with the Chan facility shifting to a secondary data centre role.
The NT government has issued a request for tender seeking to lease data centre space in Darwin for at least 10 years, with an optional extension of an additional 10 years, to act as a backup facility following the demolition of the ageing data centre.
The government said it is seeking a Tier III data centre that can accommodate 38m2 of contiguous whitespace, with space to grow to approximately 150m2 of contiguous whitespace.
The data centre will need to offer at least 48kW of power at handover, growing to up to 200kW in the space of five years.
The government said it intended to begin the fit out of the new data centre space by 31 January 2019 at the latest.