ANZ New Zealand invests $78 million in datacentre

ANZ New Zealand officially opened this morning its state-of-the-art, world class datacentre in Auckland built for a total of $78 million. The 4000 metre² purpose-built centre houses what is believed to be the most advanced data centre in New Zealand and sets the benchmark for such facilities, says ANZ in a press statement.

Jenny Fagg, ANZ New Zealand CEO, says the datacentre supports more than 40 percent of the country#8217;s financial transactions, such as EFTPOS, ATM and online banking for the ANZ and The National Bank.

ANZ New Zealand, which is number three in the latest MIS100 report on the top ICT using organisations in the country, comprises comprises ANZ, The National Bank, Direct Broking, UDC, Bonus Bonds, Eftpos New Zealand and ING NZ.

#8220;Having robust and stable technology systems underpinning our operations is imperative to expanding our growth and improving our service,#8221; says Fagg. #8220;Its operating philosophy follows the principle of #8216;no single point of failure#8217;. #8220;This means that all of the IT processes are duplicated so that if one system, such as a data network or the power shuts down, the back-up system takes over seamlessly.#8221;

Peter Lawrence, CIO of ANZ New Zealand, says the project was completed on time and within budget in 11 months from commission to construction, fit-out and testing.

He describes to CIO the nuances of such a major business project. #8220;It was not a typical building construction project, because it is the nature of what you are doing in the building,quot; he says. quot;The skills you need to do a large construction project as the one we took is different with dealing with a software vendor or hardware vendor…You have got to bring people with the right skills to help you do it the transition from that to other facilities in Auckland into a new one.#8221;

#8220;No large program has without its challenges, we were able to work on those relatively easily,#8221; says Lawrence. quot;We managed to build a strong working team across various parties which were all focused on the end outcome which was to deliver the build space and then the transition phase.quot;