NZ's most connected data centre outlines latest developments

At the Chorus Live event last month, several high-profile developments were announced: Chorus revealed the next wave of speeds in the Hyperfibre product family, the creation of EdgeCentres and a new peering service.

But one of the most consequential changes came from Data Center 220, New Zealand's most interconnected data center. The company announced a mammoth investment into its technical resources — $500,000, to be more specific.

It also revealed a new offering: customers can now utilise DCI (Data Center Interconnect) to the Chorus relay. Customers can either connect to the Chorus relay directly, and those who require more flexible terms can connect to this service through Data Center 220.

"Data Center 220 focuses growth through ease of use, and being relevant as well," said Data Center 220 general manager Robert Elcombe on the stage at the Chorus Live event last month.

"We know that technical capabilities can be difficult. We just invested half a million dollars a year in technical resources that we're making available to our client base, which can assist with networking and operating systems.

This funding is historically consistent with Data Center 220's wider ideals. As the data center with the highest number of networks in the country, the Queen Street-based facility's latest investment meshes with its broader mantra to prioritise competent staff and enterprise facilities, as well as to assist large and medium companies with plans to integrate with the cloud.

It's no secret that the pandemic hastened such plans for many organisations. And, Elcombe says, the arrival of multinational behemoths (read: Microsoft) on our shores to establish data center facilities has enabled many Kiwi organisations to embrace the cloud without any of the latency of dealing with Sydney or beyond.

"The data centers in New Zealand have typically operated in a silo mentality," says Elcombe.

"Going forward, we need the collaboration — enabled by the DCI project — to connect the smaller data centers together so that we're able to compete on a much larger playing field.

"The interconnectivity between data centers just makes it so much simpler for our customers of our data center to communicate with their clients in different areas of the country.

This simplicity is one of the most crucial elements necessary organisations, especially smaller ones, to proceed with cloud migration. Another critical element: good advice.

"Moving to the cloud, you're competing with the largest of companies on an international basis," says Elcombe. "So enterprise-grade advice, whereby organisations are fully prepared and suffer no surprises, is key.

Data Center 220's latest announcements at the Chorus Live event were essentially a continuation of their established ideals: to make it easier to connect companies, to ease their road to cloud adoption, and to bolster efficiency across the business.

Because, as Elcombe puts it: "If you're not increasing the productivity of your company, then you're wasting your money.

To learn more about Data Center 220, click here.