DCI Data Centres, part of the Canadian-based, multi-national Brookfield Asset Management group, is building the centre, to be known as CBR01, at the new 35-hectare Poplars Innovation Hub just over the NSW border but providing independent storage support for the Commonwealth government as well as Canberra-based companies in the defence, space, cyber-security and high-tech manufacturing sectors.

Brookfield is a global company, secretive and multi-layered, with US$725 billion of assets under management across real estate, construction, infrastructure, technology, renewable power, private equity and credit. Its investment portfolio includes telecommunications across Asia and New Zealand, and 14,500km of toll roads.

The key to DCI selecting the Jerrabomberra site was being connected to a power supply independent to the Canberra grid, with Essential Energy building a new 132kV power feed to the precinct.

The two-storey centre will have an initial capacity of 20 MW with eight data halls of storage, the equivalent of 40,000 computer servers.

The cost of the data centre project has not been announced but is expected to run into several hundred million dollars.

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A lack of diversity of data storage supply in the Canberra market was identified by DCI, with cloud-based service providers traditionally focused on the Sydney and Melbourne markets.

The Poplars data storage will be larger than DCI's existing data storage centres in Sydney and Adelaide, which the company's Australia and New Zealand managing director Malcolm Roe said was "reflective of the significant demand [for cloud-based storage] in Canberra".

"We estimate the demand in the Canberra market is around 80 MW," Mr Roe said.

"That's because it [Canberra] is the seat of Commonwealth agencies and defence.

"Our facility is very much focused on the secure end of the Commonwealth's requirements when it comes to defence, space, cyber and high-tech manufacturing.

"Those sectors are driving the need for cloud computing and privately managed services."

When completed in 2024, CBR01 will link with the two DCI storage centres in Adelaide and Sydney, and four others under development around the country.

DCI Data Centers Chair and Brookfield Managing Director Udhay Mathialagan said the separate grid will provide resilience for the Canberra market and capital region.

The company is engaged in a growth strategy which aims to expand its national storage footprint to 100MW within two years.

"This new data centre is the first site to offer true resiliency in power provision that not only answers a call from the government to support their Cloud First strategy, but will provide unparalleled security for our customers," Mr Mathialagan said.

"It will also be one of the major contributors in driving development within the new precinct [at Jerrabomberra]."

The NSW government has embarked on developing a raft of innovation precincts based from a report from the Innovation and Productivity Council three years ago which looked at similar initiatives around the world.

It has since developed innovation precincts with focus on specific industry sectors, with healthcare hubs in the Sydney suburbs of Randwick and Westmead, agriculture technology in Orange, Armidale and Wagga Wagga, defence and aerospace at Williamtown and Western Sydney Airport, and financial and digital within the Sydney CBD.

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