Telstra targets cloud opportunities with four new data centers

Telstra (ASX: TLS.AX) on Monday added more power to its growing cloud computing business, with plans to open four new data centers in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital.

When combined with the company's existing data centers in Sydney and Melbourne, the new data centers will offer connectivity and integration into Telstra's core network. Telstra said it has completed the sites in Western Australia and South Australia, while the ACT facility is already completed and will begin hosting data in the coming months. It will bring its Victoria facility online in 2014.

These new data centers are part of a broader $800 million company initiative to offer cloud-based services to its Australian business customer base.

By providing local data center sites, Telstra said it will be able to address customers that have low latency and data sovereignty requirements.

Being able to offer localized data centers will likely help Telstra resonate with latency-sensitive industry segments, particularly financial trading, where even a millisecond of delay could mean millions of dollars lost to a competitor.

Paul Geason, group managing director, Telstra Enterprise and Government, said that as more businesses adopt cloud services, they are asking for local data center facilities to reduce latency and fulfill internal requirements to be able to get immediate access to their data.

"With many organizations moving into the cloud, the feedback has been clear--the option to use local data centres is important either because their applications are sensitive to latency or they require data to be hosted within their state," he said in a release announcing the new data centers.

Australia's cloud market continues to see signs of growth, according to a recent Frost & Sullivan report. The research firm said 53 percent of all companies surveyed say they now spend more than 10 percent of their IT budget on cloud solutions or services.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
Telstra Global enhances global reach by opening 9 PoPs
Cisco tapped by Australia NBN to be part of its data network
Week in research: Cloud takes hold in Australia; data center growth drives demand for equipment
Telstra reaches halfway mark with ADSL2+ upgrade