ASX listed investment house, Washington H Soul Pattinson, has invested $20m in Leading Edge Data Centres to fund a network of regional edge computing data centres around Australia.
Leading Edge says it will build a network of 20 world-class tier three data centres across regional Australia to provide faster internet speeds and direct cloud connectivity for regional areas, starting with Newcastle and Tamworth in NSW.
The company said it had also gained an, unspecified, investment as part of SparkLabs Cultiv8 2020 accelerator group – an Asia Pacific acceleration program based out of regional NSW.
Leading Edge says its regional data centres will enable faster computing by locally hosting applications, whether for content hosting and distribution, IoT data processing, digital mapping, AgTech, autonomous machinery, telehealth, or telecommunications.
“This, among others also helps take the load out of the existing backhaul networks,” the company says.
“They also provide the ability to reduce network latency for internet intensive activities like remote working, teleconferencing and home education – practices which have been rapidly accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.”
Data centres in three states planned
The company says its data centre are specifically designed for the co-location environment, prefabricated and built in Newcastle NSW and available in sizes from 30 or 75 racks. (However its website also shows an eight rack ‘micro edge site’).
Rollout will start with 75-Rack edge hubs across NSW, with Newcastle and Tamworth sites expected to be ready towards the end of the year. Albury, Wagga Wagga, Parkes, Dubbo, and Coffs Harbour are to be live by May 2021 and Leading Edge plans to open data centres in Victoria and Queensland in 2021 and 22.
Edge computing is hot
On its blog, in November 2019 Leading Edge highlighted the growth of edge computing in the US, saying the “growing investment in, and use of edge networks and small yet nimble edge data centres,” was “a tech trend in the US that Australian organisations should be excited about.”
Major vendors have been talking up edge computing for several years. Back in 2018, HPE, VMware and Fujitsu were all talking up edge computing.
In September 2019 IoTAustralia reported on Schneider Electric’s play for the edge computing market, with its offerings for housing and powering edge computing, and IDC’s breakdown of the market into four flavours of edge computing.
