Canberra Data Centres broaden their sights (slightly)

Deezagood and Digga are confused. This article is about Canberra Data Centres (CDC) who are located in Sheppard Street Hume. Technical Real Estate’s large data centre development will be located on vacant land on the other side of Monaro Highway (adjacent to the recycling centre). CDC and TRE are competitors and nothing to do with each other. Lol.

Noezis said :

deezagood said :

At risk of inciting NIMBY comments … I guess this kind of proves that the proposed Tuggeranong ‘data centre’ (and associated business case, multiple employment opportunities and large number of data storage clients) was always just ruse for the gas power station after all.

The business model for the Tuggeranong Data Centre was to house commercial companies from the Asia Pacific region. Basically an alternative to providers in Singapore and Hong Kong. Australian Federal Government was not their primary client focus.

What a lot of crock! Here is Technical Real Estate’s submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee when they begged and grovelled to get anchor tenants from Federal Government:
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/fapa_ctte/stimulus_package/submissions/sub15.pdf

Seriously, get your facts right. Just another “pull the wall over my eyes” sheep.

georgesgenitals said :

It comes down to the fact that CDC deliver (physically) secure data centre space, not IT systems.

Thanks, the penny just dropped. I was thinking that CDC was more than that.

Jivrashia said :

georgesgenitals said :

DSD gateway certification is specific to Internet Gateway services, which CDC don’t provide

I don’t follow you…

CDC’s client base is government, isn’t it?
Government agency abide by security policies that are dictated to them by DSD. That’s a mandate, not a choice.
So if CDC are not providing that, are they perhaps in the wrong market?

Gateway certification is about certifying a specific Internet gateway, as in the gateway system itself. CDC are a data centre service provider, they don’t provide gateway services. Their government customers probably have certified gateways, though, and thus the responsibility for gaining that certification lies with the customer. Of course, one of the requirements for gateway certification is appropriate physical security (both site and container level), and the customer will utilise CDC’s T4 certification for this. DSD’s security doco (the ISM) deals with this very specifically, by requiring agencies to accredit systems prior to using them operationally. Accreditation is the assertion that a system is fit for purpose, and is typically based on one or more certifications.

It comes down to the fact that CDC deliver secure data centre space, not IT systems. Unless they decide to construct a gateway, they have absolutely zero requirement to certify as a gateway (which in reality is now just certifying as a system anyway). Bear in mind that the T4 certification they do have stems from the Attorney General’s PSPF (which realistically still is the PSM), which sets out the high level conditions and requirements for gaining physical security certification (the T4 bit). T4 themselves have technical standards for physical construction which they, or their nominated SCEC-endorsed assessors, measure compliance against.

Jivrashia said :

georgesgenitals said :

DSD gateway certification is specific to Internet Gateway services, which CDC don’t provide

I don’t follow you…

CDC’s client base is government, isn’t it?
Government agency abide by security policies that are dictated to them by DSD. That’s a mandate, not a choice.
So if CDC are not providing that, are they perhaps in the wrong market?

There is a SIGNIFICANT difference between being a Data Centre and a Gateway Provider or an ISP. Most of the services that utilise a Data Centre are for corporate applications and databases that would never see the light of day on the internet (so to speak).

The companies that you have listed also provide Internet Gateways for government and corporates, as it is often a logical fit and requires little extra investment (all things considered).

As such, T4 accreditation is completely appropriate for CDC. PCI DSS is not as GG says they don’t do Gateway. That said, if you were to operate a business out of CDC that required PSI DCC accreditation (which is the business responsibility (not just the ISP or data centre), as it goes down the Database management), you’d find it realatively easy to get the tick as the criteria are similar to T4 at a physical level.

georgesgenitals said :

DSD gateway certification is specific to Internet Gateway services, which CDC don’t provide

I don’t follow you…

CDC’s client base is government, isn’t it?
Government agency abide by security policies that are dictated to them by DSD. That’s a mandate, not a choice.
So if CDC are not providing that, are they perhaps in the wrong market?

deezagood said :

At risk of inciting NIMBY comments … I guess this kind of proves that the proposed Tuggeranong ‘data centre’ (and associated business case, multiple employment opportunities and large number of data storage clients) was always just ruse for the gas power station after all.

The business model for the Tuggeranong Data Centre was to house commercial companies from the Asia Pacific region. Basically an alternative to providers in Singapore and Hong Kong. Australian Federal Government was not their primary client focus.

Jivrashia said :

georgesgenitals said :

What certifications would you like them to have?

DSD Gateway certification would be a good start… or even just PCI DSS

Companies with such certification:
– Telstra
– Macquarie
– Fujitsu
– IBM
– Verizon

Various large government agencies also have them as well.

Potential clients look at CDC and are probably unable to determine if they are security savvy.

You do realise what those certifications are for, right? DSD gateway certification is specific to Internet Gateway services, which CDC don’t provide (they are a data centre, not a gateway services provider). PCI DSS is Payment Card Industry certification for systems that perform financial card transactions, another service not offered by CDC.

georgesgenitals said :

What certifications would you like them to have?

DSD Gateway certification would be a good start… or even just PCI DSS

Companies with such certification:
– Telstra
– Macquarie
– Fujitsu
– IBM
– Verizon

Various large government agencies also have them as well.

Potential clients look at CDC and are probably unable to determine if they are security savvy.

“However, Canberra Data Centres will continue to service government customers exclusively.”

At CeBit in March, Minister of Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, said “We expect our datacentre footprint will be significantly reduced and this will be a very important step towards reduction of costs.”

“so the company was looking outside the ACT for future expansion.”

Seeing as they were recently eliminated from the NSW Govt mass datacentre consolidation project, they will be looking a long way outside of the ACT.

An interesting business model.