New Zealand telecommunications service provider Spark announced this week that it is partnering with the University of Waikato to take over the management of its existing data centre facility on the University campus and invest over NZD 15 million to upgrade and grow capacity and operate the site as a key edge data centre for the telco and its business customers.
Also Read: Spark New Zealand to Invest in Data Centres and 5G Over Three Years
Edge Data Centre Advantage
To support further growth within the data centre, Spark is also investing in a new, modern fibre backbone from Otorohonga to Te Kauwhata, serving the fast-growing Hamilton East and Ruakura area, significantly enhancing connectivity to the data centre facility and improving resilience.
To note, an edge data centre is located closer to where the data is being used, reducing the time it takes for data to travel back and forth. This enables faster access and better performance for various applications and services.
Enhanced Connectivity
With this, Spark plans to support access to high-quality cloud and connectivity services in the region. Additionally the partnership will also see the University become an anchor customer of Spark's at the on-campus data centre.
Spark NZ said, "We have a clear strategy at Spark to invest in data centre capacity for New Zealand, and building a network of regional data centres is an important part of these plans. As we continue to experience exponential growth in data, ongoing migration to the cloud, and embrace new technologies like generative AI, access to high-quality, resilient computing infrastructure such as cloud services located in data centres is critical to the competitiveness of New Zealand and our regions."
Also Read: Spark Plans 10 MW Data Centre Campus in North Shore, New Zealand
Spark's Data Centre Strategy
Spark said its data centre strategy includes plans to develop three large-scale data centre campuses in Auckland's North Shore, CBD (Aotea), and South (Takanini) while continuing to invest in its metro sites in Wellington and Christchurch and retaining edge data centre facilities in regional centres such as Hamilton, Tauranga, and Dunedin.
This portfolio diversity of data centres enables it to meet a wide range of customer needs, the company said.
