HP scraps plans for $60m Tuakau datacentre

Company says it will refurbish its Auckland datacentre and review locations for additional site

Hewlett Packard has scrapped plans to build a $60 million datacentre at Tuakau, in the Counties-Manukau region and plans to review locations for a new site.

“Our New Zealand clients and wider business community have identified an increasing requirement for geographic separation of their data centre locations. To address this need, HP has realigned its recently announced data centre strategy in New Zealand. This strategy will see the replacement of the Tuakau data centre development, with a refreshment of an existing Auckland data centre, plus a review of locations for an additional site,” a media statement issued by the company states.

“These moves will enable HP New Zealand to better meet changing market requirements, complete its datacentre transformation strategy and provide a foundation for future growth.”

The company announced plans for a 500 sq m datacentre in March and claimed that construction would start this year, and fully operational by early 2012. At the time, HP enterprise services country manager Gavin Greaves said Tuakau was chosen because of its proximity to water and electricity sources and also because it is close to HP’s Auckland datacentre.

Computerworld has requested more details from HP on the scrapping of the plans, but a company spokesperson says the company will not be providing "information beyond the statement", at this stage.

In June, Softsource announced the opening of a datacentre in Albany, north of Auckland, which is powered by HP infrastructure, including gear from storage specialist 3Par.

Softsource and 3Par had already begun negotiations about building a datacentre in New Zealand when HP acquired 3Par.