WA businesses using cloud computing for data storage will enjoy faster speeds thanks to a multimillion-dollar upgrade of local facilities.
The expansion of Fujitsu’s WA data centre in Malaga means local firms will be spared the latency problems associated with sending data thousands of kilometres to the east coast.
“Here in the west we had a lot of clients saying they wanted capability,” Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand chief executive Mike Foster said. “People were concerned about the latency and communications cost of having data on the east coast. Having the data centre here gives you great capacity.
“Closer is quicker. One of our clients on the east coast is putting their primary back-up in Perth and their operations in Sydney.”
The upgrade of WA-based cloud facilities gives the added advantage of increased data security for companies across Australia. In the event of a catastrophe at a data centre in Sydney, business continuity will likely be guaranteed because of Perth’s physical distance from the source of the problem.
Mr Foster said the upgrade would be completed by Christmas.
“We’ve spent a couple of hundred million dollars on our data centres over the last few years,” he said. “We have 10 around Australia.”
The company reported $1.2 billion of revenue in Australia last financial year. Mr Foster would not reveal how much of that came from cloud computing operations but said government agency clients accounted for half of the cloud revenue. Fujitsu’s cloud business had grown by 50 per cent over the last two years and Mr Foster expected it to double in size in the next year.