Fujitsu poised to invest $80m in datacentres

Facilities in Auckland and Wellington dependent on future deals

Fujitsu New Zealand has had $NZ80 million in funding for two new datacentres, in Auckland and Wellington, approved by its parent through Fujitsu Australia, managing director Stuart Stitt confirms.

“We’ve got the budget, but we haven’t hit the go button yet,” he says.

The final go-ahead is dependent on getting appropriate business from local organisations, and this should be forthcoming in the next few weeks, enabling the centres to start building “later this year”, he says.

The obvious candidate is an all-of-government infrastructure-as-a-service setup, the RFP for which was issued by the Department of Internal Affairs. DIA, however, is not expected to shortlist candidates until early next month.

There are other potential deals that would justify the new centres even if the government deal does not go Fujitsu’s way, Stitt says. He declines to say what other prospects Fujitsu NZ is working on.

HP recently announced it would be building a $60 million datacentre in Tuakau, Waikato and IBM has recently built an $80 million datacentre in East Tamaki, Auckland.