Telstra InfraCo opens carrier neutral data centres in Sydney and Melbourne

Telstra InfraCo, the standalone infrastructure business of Telstra, has opened up the first two of at least seven carrier neutral data centres, aimed at customers working with carriers other than Telstra for their connectivity. 

InfraCo data centres have previously existed primarily to host Telstra's own extensive networks' data equipment requirements. 

Now, having initially opened up the data centres in Sydney and Melbourne, InfraCo plans to soon expand the availability and use cases of data centres across the nation into another seven existing data centre sites based on demand beyond the metro locations included in the initial launch. 

According to Telstra InfraCo exchanges and infrastructure executive Rachel Johnson-Kelly, the data centres will be available to customers initially through the Telstra Wholesale channel.   

"InfraCo data centres provide highly secure, reliable, and flexible environments for network operators and service providers, such as global carriers, internet service providers and over the top providers, to connect out to their business locations, facilities and other data centre operators," Johnson-Kelly said.  

"These data centres provide 100 per cent power availability targets, which are backed by service levels and rebates. They use dual grid feeds with state-of-the-art equipment and support for high power densities, allowing customers to scale on request, without the need to re-configure powering requirements to deliver big data analytic services and peak workloads. 

"They also offer facilities access to powered racks with cooling and monitoring, 24×7 building security and a range of professional services including installation, equipment maintenance and operations," she added. 

Earlier this month, Telstra revealed that the ongoing southeast Australian mouse plague had found its way into its network systems, prompting the telco to take steps to prevent the rodents from affecting its infrastructure further. 

The plague, which has been devastating enough to warrant its own regional recovery program listing on the NSW government website, is not only affecting households, small businesses and primary producers, but Telstra as well. 

According to Michael Marom, area general manager for NSW and ACT region at Telstra, the telco's network has been ideal for providing the mice with chewing material as a means of appeasing their need to bite down on anything they can get their paws on — rodents typically need to gnaw on things a lot of the time to keep their teeth, which never stop growing, from getting too long.

In June, just a handful of months after splitting its business into three different units late last year to position itself to spin off its infrastructure assets as part of its broad T22 transformation strategy, Telstra sold close to half of its Towers business for $2.8 billion. 

Australia's largest telco offloaded a 49 per cent stake of its Towers business to a consortium comprising Future Fund - the Australian government's sovereign wealth fund - as well as the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and Sunsuper, who together will become a strategic partner in Telstra InfraCo Towers as the minority shareholder in the business.