An artist's impression of the entry to Macquarie Telecom's IC4 security data centre in Canberra. The facility will be completed by mid-2013.
A $14 million Canberra security data centre dubbed the 'Bunker' by Macquarie Telecom (ASX: MAQ) will be opened in mid-2013 to help protect government Internet gateways.
Officially known as Intellicentre 4 (IC4), the facility is the result of the telco and data centre provider’s decision to invest in hosting, network and security for the Australian federal government’s Lead Agency Gateway (LAG) program.
The program, which covers all government agencies managed by the Financial Management and Accountability Act of 1997, has a goal of reducing the number of Internet gateways used by agencies from 124 down to eight. This is intended to reduce the risk of cyber attacks against government bodies.
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Macquarie Telecom won the first gateway contract in October 2012 and signed a five-year agreement with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
According to the vendor’s government and security executive Glen Noble, IC4 will be built to ASIO T4 intruder and Payment Card Industry (PCI) ISO 27001 security standards as well as the Uptime Institute's Tier III data centre design standards.
“Being based in Canberra, the IC4 Bunker marks a dedicated investment in secure hosting for government and one which reaffirms our commitment to be the trusted provider connecting the public sector in Australia to the World Wide Web,” he said in a statement.
Noble added that additional infrastructure to support the LAG program will be deployed in the $60 million IC2 Sydney data centre for “increased resiliency and customer access options".
Macquarie Telecom has been contacted for additional information by CIO Australia.
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