Plan B opens Wellington data centre; plans to go live by mid September

Plan B, the business continuity and disaster recovery providers, officially launched its new data centre in Tawa, Wellington today.

According to the firm, considering remaining install and test schedules, the first customers will go live in the site in the second week of September.

The facility, which was declared open by deputy PM Bill English, will function as part of the company's sub-brand Southern Cross Data Centres (SXDC) and offer co-location services, tied to backup services, as part of a national network of data centres.

"We are a New Zealand business working for New Zealand businesses and New Zealanders. I think we can say we are the only firm whose services have survived five earthquakes. We have 40,000 backup tapes under management and around 18 per cent of our customers have activated business continuity services in the past 12 months.

"With SXDC we are offering niche services to customers, who can tap into a network of data centres to safeguard their data and business," said Ian Forrester, MD of Plan B at the launch of the event.

The data centre will accommodate around 80 racks to customers, and has been built to tier 2+ capability to allow for decentralisation and a spread-of-risk for customers. The facility also hosts dedicated -tenant standby office space for clients who seek it.

Forrester also thanked partners Just Switchboards and Schneider Electric for making the data centre a reality.

At the event, English spoke about changes in technology procurement and usage within the government.

"Government agencies are much like big businesses. The challenge with any of them, whether Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the police, is that the assets they have are people and IT. Stewardship in the public sector is changing and we have to know more about technolgy in order to better direct the $4 billion in tech projects that are in the pipeline," said English.

He also commended Plan B on choosing Wellington for the location as it added to the practical infrastructure and perception of things happening among technology businesses in the city.