Pilbara, Western Australia – 15 August 2023, Leading data centre provider NEXTDC Ltd announces its latest Edge data centre is to be located in Port Hedland, Pilbara – the first of its kind in the region.

This new Tier III certified data centre, PH1 Port Hedland, is part of NEXTDC’s Edge strategy, which is working to deliver best-in-class Edge data centre facilities to meet growing demand for direct connectivity to cloud services and critical infrastructure co-located in regional Australia and is expected to be ready for customers operating across the Pilbara in August 2023.

NEXTDC Chief Commercial Officer David Dzienciol, says the new centre will support key industries in the region which underpin economic growth.

“The Pilbara region is clearly a strategic market for us as we extend our capabilities alongside the mining and resources sector,”

“Multi-faceted partnerships are increasingly driving the need for real-time insights, improved response times and better availability of data as key fundamentals in digital transformation across many industry sectors,”

“The new Port Hedland site will enable NEXTDC and our ecosystem partners, including BHP, Vocus and Microsoft, to offer continued innovation such as cloud technology together with operational support to the mining and resources sector which is currently undergoing exciting digital change and transformation,” Mr Dzienciol said.

PH1 To Connect Pilbara Region With High Speed, Low-Latency, And Diverse Connectivity

The edge-based strategy realised at PH1 enables NEXTDC to extend its’ technology ecosystem to the region through its partnership with Vocus.

PH1 will connect the Pilbara region with high speed, low-latency, and diverse connectivity, enabling the mining and resources businesses in the area to maximise uptime in their critical operations and improve miner safety without compromising on their sustainability commitments

PH1 Port Hedland will host Vocus’ ‘Project Horizon’ fibre, a new 2,000km fibre backbone through the Pilbara region providing mining and resource businesses with access to low-latency, high-capacity connectivity for mission critical operations.

Vocus CEO Ellie Sweeney said, “PH1 represents a critical facility in the ongoing network investment undertaken by Vocus in supporting Australia’s North-West, including its subsea Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC) offering new and alternative routes between Perth, Port Hedland, Darwin and South-East Asia,”

“Importantly, Vocus are very excited to be partnering with NEXTDC in connecting critical infrastructure with secure, high-speed access for the mining and resources sector, both in the
PIlbara and across North-western Australia.” said Sweeney

Malcolm De Silva, Director of Mining and Energy and Director for WA at Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, highlighted the new business value generated from edge facilities such as NEXTDC’s PH1 Port Hedland.

“Having the ability to make important business decisions with real-time data in remote areas like Port Hedland is vital for the resources sector,” De Silva said.

“Importantly, PH1 Port Hedland combines security, safety and uptime resilience with low-latency connectivity, allowing Microsoft to extend its cloud applications and platforms to a number of mining operators across remote Australia.”

Following on from the recent Sunshine Coast launch, PH1 Port Hedland will be the second of a series of geographically dispersed, new Edge data centres that will service regional businesses and networks across Australia, leveraging NEXTDC’s already established network of core data centres.

Like NEXTDC’s Metropolitan data centre footprint, these new edge sites are interconnected to NEXTDC’s extensive national digital services ecosystem via AXON, NEXTDC’s elastic interconnection services platform.

AXON will provide direct and secure access to NEXTDC’s broader national digital services ecosystem, comprising over 770 technology partners and Australia’s largest network of public cloud onramps for platforms such as Microsoft, AWS, and more.

With a total planned capacity of 1.5MW, PH1 Port Hedland has been engineered to support the highest levels of customer availability and is backed by NEXTDC’s industry leading service guarantee of 100% uptime.