Some $8 billion worth of additional data centre facilities will be needed if Australia is going to have a sustainable IT economy in the future, according to analyst firm IDC Australia.
IDC Australia chief of research, Matt Oostveen, said this outlook incorporates a calculation drawn from the Gershon review.
The review, which was publicly released in October 2009, noted the absence of a whole-of-government strategic plan for data centres could cost taxpayers up to $1 billion over 15 years if a more coordinated approach isn’t implemented.
“If the review is not executed to the letter, that would mean there is even greater demand and the [construction] amount of $8 billion would increase,” Oostveen said.
According to IDC Australia research, supply construction was worth $2.3 billion from 1 January to 31 October 2011.
“In 2012, the market will come to the realisation that with the introduction of the National Broadband Network [NBN], a carbon tax driving up the cost of power, Cloud computing adoption and the Gershon review we are going to find out that we still don’t have enough data centre space,” he said.
“It’s one thing to have bandwidth and a network but there are a lot of situations currently playing out that will drive up the requirement for data centre space."
According to Oostveen, Australian-based data centre companies, such as NextDC, and overseas vendors with speciality in the data centre space, such as Equinix, will be busy constructing in 2012.
He added that if the efficiencies forecast in the Gershon review were to be realised, then agencies and departments need to use the Federal Government data centre panel which is set in place for the next five years.
The panel aims to provide agencies with an improved process to procure data centre facilities and services.
Oostveen gave the example of government departments circumventing the panel because of special circumstances in their departments.
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