Australia’s Ageing Data Centres Addressed at CeBIT Conference

SYDNEY, Australia – March 19, 2010: An industry-leading congress of expert speakers will address the increasing problem of an ageing Australian data centre landscape at next Monday’s Future-Proofing Your Data Centre Conference, in Sydney.

This issue has been highlighted as a highly topical issue for all sectors of Australian industry as older systems can lead to near-disastrous and costly ramifications for organisations with high data demands.

“Australia has some of the oldest data centres in the Asia Pacific region which is significant in that old data centres are more expensive to maintain, less reliable and often unable to cope with the demands placed on them by modern servers and storage”, explains IDC analyst, Matthew Oostveen[1].

Data Centre strategy revisions are currently being planned and implemented across the complete spectrum of government, commerce and services.  Business leaders and data centre solutions providers taking the lead in this important strategy revolution will meet at CeBIT Australia’s Future-Proofing Your Data Centre to share expertise and compare notes on data centre optimisation best practice.

The event will open with a keynote presentation by the Hon. Lindsay Tanner MP, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, who will announce the Federal Government’s new data centre strategy.

Augmenting the strong relationship between government and CeBIT Australia that has spanned 8 years since the international business event was brought to the Asia-Pacific region, Minister Tanner will return to address CeBIT audiences at this year’s event in Sydney (24-26 May). He will join Dr Werner Vogels, Vice President World Wide Architecture and CTO, Amazon Web Services and a full cast of esteemed international leaders to inform Australian industry on how technology has driven their corporate strategy and where it is heading next.

Following this theme, Future-Proofing Your Data Centre delegates will gain access to a complete overview of operational data centre insights from a speaking agenda specifically tailored to deliver a full range of up-to-the-minute, business critical solutions.

Poor data centre cooling and air flow design is one of the most significant challenges for data centre managers, potentially reducing the life of servers and equipment by as much as five years, according to Future-Proofing Your Data Centre platinum sponsor, Server Racks Australia (SRA).

Speaking ahead of the company’s presentation and workshop at Future Proofing Your Data Centre, Andrew Connelly, Data Centre Solution Architect at SRA, said the importance of cooling was often overshadowed by high profile data centre issues such as power consumption and Green IT.

“The key issue is that as data centre density has increased we are seeing more by-pass air and recirculated air – both of which mean the life of a server is dramatically reduced, and servers and other hardware can fail as they are not getting cooled effectively,” hesaid.

Also sponsoring Future-Proofing Your Data Centre is Computer Site Solutions (CSS), which designs, builds and maintains environments for mission-critical operations to meet business needs.

The diverse speaker line-up ensures conference attendees will gain access to proven case studies that relevant to their industry. Presenters include:

• Philip Hind, Chief Knowledge Officer, Australian Taxation Office
• Shane Owenby, Managing Director Asia Pacific, Amazon Web Services
• Glenn Allen, Data Centre Platform Specialist, National Australia Bank
• Dr Eugene Zaid, Enterprise Architecture & Strategy, Westpac Banking Corporation
• Brian Kissell, Chief Technology Officer, University of Southern Queensland
• Barry Goldstein, Chair AGEG; and Director – Petroleum / Geothermal
• Stewart Taggart, Founder, DESERTEC – Australia
• Michael Mallia, General Manager, Power Quality Australia & New Zealand, Eaton Industries, Electrical Group
• Carrie Higbie, Global Director for Data Centre Solutions & Services, The Siemon Company
• Christian Bertolini, Engineering Practice Manager, APC
• Michael Jenkins, Manager, Enterprise Architecture & Strategy, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia
• Tim Takala, Technical Director – Enterprise APAC, ADC Krone

A full speaker list, and agenda for the conference, is available at www.cebit.com.au

Future-Proofing Your Data Centre will be held on Monday 22 March with a full day of workshops on Tuesday 23 March. The conference features as part of the CeBIT Global Conference Series outside the annual CeBIT Australia technology event held on 24 – 26 May.

Press contact:

Emma Cooney, +61-2-9282 7546/ emma.cooney@hannoverfairs.com.au

Server Racks Australia (SRA), a trading name of Preceision Metals Queanbeyan Pty Ltd,  is a local Australian manufacturer of high-quality ICT equipment cabinets and associated products. Recently, a major Federal Government Department requested SRA to design a range of cabinets to help them provide managed cooling for its medium and high density projects. This resulted in the development of the iPAMM (intelligent Plenum Air Management Module) range of products. Since then, SRA has expanded its portfolio of airflow management products to support medium and high density IT cabinet loads. This includes, HOT and COLD aisle containment systems, ducted airflow systems, in-row cooling systems and combinations of these systems. With the addition of airflow management systems to IT equipment cabinets, cooling effectiveness and efficiency can be greatly improved.

Computer Site Solutions (CSS) is a specialist company with a proven track record of taking on total project responsibility. The company excels in minimising risks, leaving clients to run their business, while is builds and maintain sites. CSS successfully manages large-scale, multiple-site, national projects all the way down to a single data outlet. CSS staff has a unique mixture of experience and specialist construction industry skills. CSS is highly regarded for on-time completion and quality workmanship together with economical, custom designed solutions.

Hannover Fairs Australia is the largest business technology exhibition and conference event organiser in the region. Its flagship CeBIT Australia 2010 event will be held from May 24-26 2010 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour. For more information on CeBIT Australia, please visit www.cebit.com.au.

Hannover Fairs Australia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the global trade group company Deutsche Messe AG. Hannover Fairs Australia also assists Australian companies in attending other international events organised by Deutsche Messe AG across the world. For information about other Deutsche Messe global events please visit www.hannoverfairs.com.au.

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[1] Computerworld (6/11/2009): http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/327644/australian_data_centre_landscape/