With AI and cloud service demand still climbing, the Albanese government’s reported push to streamline approvals for data centres is being read by industry watchers as the proverbial ‘starting gun’ for a digital infrastructure gold rush in Australia.
Winston Su, founder and enterprise director of independent data centre intelligence and comparison platform CertifiedStrategic.com, said that there are quite a few forces working together to make this happen, “We’re at the start of a data centre gold rush in Australia. We have demand driven by AI, cloud demand but also the country’s growing role in the Asia-Pacific region, where Australia will have a central role in providing the necessary infrastructure." Su said.
“The Albanese government’s reported move to accelerate sustainable projects is welcome, and shows the government is responding to the enormous demand. For digital infrastructure builders, a major point of industry attention will be on the upcoming Hosting Certification Framework, which may create some initial churn in our industry, with new players likely to enter our market as rules become clear.”
Standards vs speed
Faster approvals seem to be reserved for those who are building to higher standards than the old “certified strategic” label demanded, but it’s unclear exactly what the government will expect from data centers in the future. That’s where the next iteration of Australia’s Hosting Certification Framework (HCF), currently under government review, becomes critical to the success of the datacenter industry in Australia. “As infrastructure is designed, the key considerations we’re seeing from the buy-side are energy efficiency, governance and cooling,” Su said. “These factors, alongside data security and scalability, should be fundamental construction considerations as projects move through an accelerated approvals process.” Su expects the updated framework to place greater emphasis on energy performance, operational resilience and sovereign operating models — potentially positioning Australia as a regional benchmark.
“The next iteration of the HCF has the potential to become a gold standard not just domestically, but across the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
Written by CertifiedStrategic Editorial Team
CertifiedStrategic.com - Australia's independent data centre index tracking capacity, certification and market news across the country's critical infrastructure providers.
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