David Simpson (T4 Group)
A newly-formed Southland business is targeting the hyper-active New Zealand data centre market.
T4 Group was established in 2021 with the vision of providing regional New Zealand with access to colocation data centres and reliable, secure, green and economically viable data networks.
The business, which recently finalised the acquisition of Northland-based Advanced Data Centres (ADC), said further rack space was also available in Auckland as it continued to broaden its regional supply.
“As a regional-based organisation, we will continue to support regional New Zealand with continuing investment in infrastructure, increasing resilience,” said David Simpson, director of T4.
Simpson told Reseller News while there had been a shift to cloud services, there was now a shortage of colocation space nationally; cloud did not suit all workloads.
All T4 data centres are colocation, providing rack space for clients to store and run their own hardware and servers with T4 staff monitoring them 24/7. In addition to his own data centre experience, Simpson has teamed up with Jason Porter, who had worked with Revera for over 17 years.
In addition to T4's current tier 2 and tier 3 offerings, plans are underway to build a tier 4 data centre in Southland to provide security and reliable uptime for businesses.
A key feature of the new facility will be its modular design so it can be responsive to demand and modules could be added as and when required, taking advantage of newer, more sustainable technology.
The design would maximise cool natural airflow to significantly reduce reliance on powered cooling while warm air would be extracted and used by a large local business. That, combined with the use of hydro power, will deliver what Simpson claims will be New Zealand’s first carbon neutral data centre.
“T4 Group is not green washing its operation," Simpson said. "Currently, data centres in New Zealand rely heavily on coal as a secondary power source which companies offset by purchasing carbon credits. We can harness the unique benefits from the regions, such as access to hydro energy, to develop a truly green and sustainable community asset.”
