Canberra Data Centres has announced that it has signed a new 10-year deal with the Defence last month.
The $91.5 million Defence contract is double the value of its previous most lucrative contract with the big spending department, and was revealed through public tender documents. This development was reported by InnovationAus.com
Contract Till 2032
Canberra Data Centres (CDC) will receive $91.5 million from Defence over the life of the ‘Data Centre Services’ contract which runs to 2032. The arrangement comes just weeks before CDC’s other main deal with Defence – an eight year, $48 million ‘Data Pod’ contract which is set to expire in September.
However, the latest contract is not a replacement, a Defence spokesperson said. “The new contract with Canberra Data Centres provides additional infrastructure and services support to Defence’s data hosting capabilities, consistent with Defence’s Data Hosting Strategy,” the spokesperson told InnovationAus.com.
The contract pushed CDC’s total Canberra work past the $1 billion mark, according to public tender documents disclosing the 288 contracts it holds or has held with Australian government agencies. The latest contract with Defence was signed under the Data Centre Facilities Supplies Panel (Panel 2) which is expected to be superseded by a new arrangement from next year.
Founded in 2007 by Ken Lowe, Craig Sebbens and Greg Boorer to provide government clients with the secure data center facilities they increasingly needed; the company grew to an $816 million valuation, when it was sold to institutional investors in 2016. It is now the largest privately-owned and operated data center business in Australia.
CDC has expanded to non-government areas but holds large deals with Commonwealth agencies, including its biggest arrangement with Services Australia, an 11-year $295 million facility lease. Also, CDC is one of a handful of providers cleared to hold sensitive government data under the new Hosting Certification Framework sovereignty scheme. It also holds a $95 million deal with Home Affairs and a $73 million deal with the Tax Office, both running for a decade each.
