Government could learn from Equinix’s security protocol, Labor MP says

Government could learn a thing or two from private sector said Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services and for the Republic Matt Thistlethwaite during the opening of Equinix’s eighth Sydney IBX data centre.

“I think that, in terms of government, there’s a lot that we can learn from the private sector in the way that you’ve handled the growth of the digital economy and you’ve invested in it. Anyone that’s interacted with government digitally knows that there can be improvements made.

“If you look at the MyGov website, and that the programme hellip; is interacting with that, there are definitely improvements that can be made. We all know the problems with the National Broadband Network that have occurred in Australia over recent years.

Thistlethwaite also said that it was only this year that Parliament House in Canberra upgraded its security systems to swipe cards, while equinox is checking peoples photo IDs and finger print to be able to enter the data centre.

The Australian Parliament House introduced personal identity verification (PIV) cards and readers in the last year but swipe readers have been in place for longer.

“We could learn a thing or two, from the private sector, about the digital economy and hopefully, with centres like this where you can demonstrate what is possible, what is best practice, that you can interact with government so that we improve our digital footprint and our interaction with the Australian public,” he added.

In his speech, Thistlethwaite said the new data centre will no doubt drive productivity improvement and innovation and hopefully startups, and ultimately, more employment and jobs “not only in this local community, but also Australia wide”.

During a tour of the premises for media, Thistlethwaite asked Equinix senior director of operations Glenn Uidam if the data centre and interconnectivity company was hiring local or overseas labour.

Uidam said Equinix hires specialists without going into details and also saying the company does not reveal the number of employees in its facilities.

Equinix brand new data centre, SY5, was announced in Februaryand it is the company’s largest data centre in Australia with capacity for 9225 cabinets and taking up more than 25,000 square metres.

To put in perspective, together, Equinix’s seven existing IBX data centres in Sydney occupy more than 19,925 square metres.

With five of its eight Sydney data centres located in Alexandria, Equinix senior director of operations Glenn Uidam said that Equinix’s decision for the region was due to the Southern Cross Cable Head which is located close to the facilities.

“That Southern Cross landing station enabled the network service providers to want to locate themselves in a place which is carrier neutral. And so move on 20 years, we now have over 160 network service providers located within this location,” Uidam said.

APAC region

Equinix APAC president Jeremy Deutsch said the company has not finished its expansion in the region and it will continue to expand to support customer demand.

“How customers are after key capability from us. That key capability is the ability to interconnect with the digital economy. These facilities are the physical manifestation of the location where customers are going to come in and connect to that digital economy,” Deutsch said.

This year Equinix announced globally 12 new IBX locations and 23 expansions which will result in up to $2.7 billion investment.

One of the key things leading the expansion is the drive to connect to cloud, multi-cloud and hybrid architectures.

Another point is the growth in IoT, AR, VR and 5G which are driving new technologies and requirements and as a result, enterprise customers are looking to make sure they take advantage of that.