NextDC finds gold in Pilbara with Microsoft, Vocus, BHP

NextDC is building a data centre in partnership with Microsoft, Vocus and BHP.

Australia data centre giant NextDC will build a second data centre in the Pilbara, after the ASX-listed company purchased a new plot of land south of Port Hedland.

NextDC has bought land in Newman, about 450km south of the coastal town Port Hedland, where it plans to develop a new data centre called NE1. Construction is set to start on the project later this year with support from mining industry giants BHP, US tech giant Microsoft and telecommunications company Vocus.

NE1 arrives as NextDC is set to open its latest data centre on Friday, in which the company made an investment understood to be $25m.

Similarly, NextDC partnered with Microsoft, BHP and Vocus on the data centre in Port Hedland, a West Australian town about 1600km north of Perth and 2400km southwest of Darwin. The data centre, called PH1 Port Hedland, has a planned capacity of 1.5MW.

NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie said the centre would allow local businesses and companies to make data-driven decisions in real time.

“The Pilbara is home to some of Australia’s most significant projects shaping the mining and resources sector,” Mr Scroggie said.

“The organisations behind these projects need to be able to make critical business decisions through real-time data, and the launch of our PH1 Port Hedland data centre further strengthens this capability via secure connectivity to Australia’s largest ecosystem of partners, global cloud platforms and critical IT infrastructure.”

The data centre will leverage Vocus’s Project Horizon which includes the construction of a 2000km fibre cable connecting Port Hedland to Geraldton, which sits around 420km north of Perth.

NextDC’s new Port Hedland data centre.

Vocus chief executive Ellie Sweeney said her company had a similar focus on the mining and resources sector and was looking to connect regions in WA to the Asia-Pacific.

“Importantly, Vocus is very excited to be partnering with NextDC in connecting critical infrastructure with ­secure, high-speed access for the mining and resources sector, both in the Pilbara and across northwestern Australia,” she said.

NextDC’s new data centre would also be used to help facilitate Vocus’s Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore cable, which also connects to Port Hedland.

“PH1 represents a critical facility in the network investment undertaken by Vocus in supporting Australia’s northwest, including its offering new and alternative routes between Perth, Port Hedland, Darwin and South-East Asia,” Ms Sweeney said.

Microsoft’s local director of mining and engineering Malcolm De Silva said edge computing centres were crucial for real-time data management. “Having the ability to make important business decisions with real-time data in remote areas like Port Hedland is vital for the resources sector,” he said.

“Importantly, PH1 Port Hedland combines security, safety and uptime resilience with low-latency connectivity, allowing Microsoft to extend its cloud applications and platforms to a number of mining operators across remote Australia.”

The data centre in Port Hedland, Western Australia.

David Dzienciol, NextDC’s chief commercial officer, said the company has a clear focus on the Pilbara and facilitating data and connectivity in regional Australia.

“The Pilbara region is clearly a strategic market for us as we extend our capabilities alongside the mining and resources sector,” he said.

“Multi-faceted partnerships are increasingly driving the need for real-time insights, improved response times and better availability of data as key fundamentals in digital transformation across many sectors.”