HdS to establish virtual data centre in Brisbane

By ADAM GIFFORD

Hosting and Data Services (HdS) has turned down an opportunity to take over Hitachi's mainframe hosting business in Australia, opting instead to export its New Zealand-developed virtual data centre model across the Tasman.

Chief executive Roger Cockayne said Hitachi Data Systems, which has a minority stake in HdS after selling its New Zealand operation to management, had approved the plan to set up a bridgehead in Brisbane.

The city, while a similar size to Auckland, was more buoyant, Cockayne said, so there were more opportunities.

"We will be a Hitachi reseller, but the big thing will be the virtual data centre and the culture of service we have built around that."

Cockayne spent most of this year working with Hitachi Australia, which had a multi-million-dollar business hosting IBM System 390 computers for customers such as Repco and Ansett.

"We thought there was some low-hanging fruit there, but it was poisoned fruit," said Cockayne.

"There are big dollars to be earned or big losses. The System 390 market is controlled by IBM and Computer Associates, and since the price of the software is set in New York, we would have no control."

HdS has linked data centres in Albany and Tawa near Wellington.

Cockayne said for the Australian operation he was negotiating with a property company that owned unlit data centres in the five major Australian cities.


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