The winners of the inaugural Australia & New Zealand Cloud & Data Center Awards were announced at a presentation ceremony which followed the Cloud & Datacenter Convention at the Grand Millennium in Auckland on Thursday 31st October 2024.
Four categories were announced at the ceremony:
The Data Center Project of the Year category rewards best practices in data center planning, build and facility extension across Australia and New Zealand over the past 12 months. The trophy was presented by Mark Thiele to Karl Mayoh, Joint CEO & Founding Director of Erilyan together with members of the team responsible for the winning project delivered by Erilyan on behalf of Equinix at Stage 3 of the Sydney 5 facility.
The Data Center Innovation of the Year category is designed to recognise the technologies, processes and ideas developed and in deployment over the past 12 months that have done most to shape the industry. This Award was presented by Steve Lawson, LEP Segment Manager at Terra Cat and was received by Matt Ryan, Customer & Growth Lead at Spark for the company’s Surf Park Heat Exchange System at their North Shore Campus.
The Award for Sustainability Initiative of the Year recognises local sustainability initiatives at any stage of the data center life cycle introduced over the past 12 months that have stood out. The judges nominated Charles Fortin and Collard Maxwell Architects as the winner of this category for their delivery of the Pacific Island Data Center.
The Individual Achievement Award is presented to the individual who has led the industry forward through the labyrinth of challenges and opportunities it has faced and faces now. The trophy was presented by Simon Fletcher, the Managing Director of W.Media in Australia and New Zealand to Ryan Cockayne, currently Director of Mobistore. Ryan has been active in New Zealand’s data center industry for the best part of two decades during which time the facilities which he has managed and consulted to, have navigated through the major demand transitions. In particular, his introduction of modular designs and PODs was a unique initiative for New Zealand.
This decision was reached through consultation with the judges and local industry leaders.
Each entry was evaluated by members of the panel of expert judges including:
- Chris Molloy, Digital Infrastructure Associates
- Glenn Allen, Service-driven professional, ex-NAB
- Mark Thiele, Advisor, Advisory Board Member, CCO, Head of Infrastructure
- Nabeel Mahmood, Global CXO, Technology Executive, Nomad Futurist
- Paul Stathis, CEO, BICSI South Pacific
- Peter Joseph. Independent Cloud & Technology Advisor.
Entries were submitted via a structured online form. This is our inaugural Awards specifically for Australia and New Zealand and the number and quality of entries was encouraging. We congratulate our winners and thank all of the individuals and organisations who submitted entries, as well as the judging panel and the 170+ people who attended the presentation ceremony.
Further details and coverage to follow!