Harbour IT to offer Brisbane data centre services

Brisbane customers of Melbourne-based IT services provider, Harbour IT, will have their own dedicated rack space by the end of 2011 following talks by the company with data centre providers.

National Cloud services director, Adam Simpson, told Computerworld Australia that it was targeting Brisbane because its customers were keen to "dip their toe" into private Cloud services.

In-depth: Data centre migration guide.

"We're also starting to offer disaster recovery and backup as a service so we need those multiple data centres down the eastern seaboard because that's where the majority of our customers are," Simpson said.

The company currently has 10 racks in Sydney and five racks in Melbourne facilities provided by data centre operator Equinix.

He said that the company offers dedicated cages within those data centres for its customers, which include cafe chain, The Coffee Club, and online coupon website, Shop a Docket.

"We tend to build a dedicated environment so it gives customers an extra level of security," he said.

"Initially we will put in five racks as that is the minimum that the data centre providers will let you take over in terms of a dedicated cage space."

The Brisbane facility is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011.

"We're already working with [storage provider] NetApp on what that side of the environment will look like because we already have prospective disaster recovery and backup customers in Brisbane that want to come on board towards the end of the year."

Harbour IT has 10 staff based in Brisbane at present with 120 staff in total spread across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

The company is also in talks with fellow Melbourne company, NextDC, for a partnership.

"There is an opportunity for us to form a very strategic partnership with them rather than being just a supplier/provider," Simpson said.

"NextDC coming into the market is going to put a bit of pressure on the traditional data centre players because their business model is not just to supply square metres [of data centre space]; they are looking at the service provider side."

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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