Sunshine Coast Council’s vision is to be Australia's most sustainable region – healthy, smart and creative.
With a local government area of 2,263.5km2 and a population expected to pass 500,000 in 2041 (from 346,648 in 2021), there is an increase in community expectation for Sunshine Coast Council (Council) to provide accessible, safe and reliable digital services that improve their experience as they work, rest and play within the region.
Council was presented with a unique opportunity in early 2022, when the majority of Council staff began inhabiting the new Maroochydore City Hall building, located only a few hundred metres from the recently opened NEXTDC SC1 Tier 3N+1 Edge Data Centre. With Council approaching the end of contractual commitments for their Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment in Brisbane, Council elected to leverage the new NEXTDC Tier 3N+1 Edge Data Centre and transition Council’s IaaS environment to Council owned and managed hardware, with the production environment in NEXTDC SC1 and disaster recovery environment in Brisbane.
The remainder of 2022 and early 2023 saw the new environment build activities conclude such that Council’s virtual server environment and file shares could be migrated to the new environment in June 2023.
Council staff in City Hall now access Council data in NEXTDC SC1 faster with double the network speed available (bandwidth) and reduced network delay of >60% (latency) due to the close proximity and direct fibre connection between City Hall and SC1.
Looking ahead, in addition to realising benefits from use of the NEXTDC Data Centre the region and Council will benefit from high-speed data connections that link people and products to the world. The international broadband submarine cable provides a competitive advantage and opportunity for data reliant businesses and Council services across the region, with Council planning to explore use of the submarine cable as part of their network roadmap.
“It’s no coincidence that NEXTDC have selected Maroochydore for the deployment of our first ‘Edge’ data centre in 2021. The Sunshine Coast is one of Australia’s fastest growing population centres and the local municipal authorities are making significant investments in developing the region as a digital epicentre that will attract investment and create opportunities for employment, regional development and business innovation.
Importantly, our Sunshine Coast data centre also hosts critical infrastructure for the 7,000km Japan-Guam-Australia submarine cable landing station which connects the east coast of Australia to Asia and the west coast of North America.
It is predicted that one-third of all of Australia’s international internet traffic will transition through this facility within three years. We are thrilled to work with Sunshine Coast Council to invest in digital infrastructure that will enable the ongoing development of the region in addition to playing a significant role in supporting Australia’s digital economy.”
– NEXTDC CEO and Managing Director Craig Scroggie
Key benefits:
- Projected reduction in annual IT operating costs of more than 40% over 5-year period.
- Faster connectivity to Council data residing in the NEXTDC SC1 Tier 3N+1 Edge Data Centre through direct fibre connectivity from City Hall.
- Future opportunities to leverage the submarine cable to enhance connectivity and benefit the region for upcoming events (e.g., Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games).
“Council’s use of the NEXTDC SC1 Tier 3N+1 Edge Data Centre in Maroochydore provides a local platform for ICT services whilst also aligning with one of our guiding principles to maximise the value from digital investments and create efficiencies, as reflected in the projected ongoing operational savings.
Looking ahead, Council can utilise the Maroochydore Data Centre to enable digital services that make a positive difference to the community whilst maximising operational efficiencies for the organisation to advance our vision to be Australia’s most sustainable region.
The international submarine cable adds future opportunities to provide fast, reliable connectivity to employees, customers and Council sites in line with our Digital Plan.”
Future fast data
NEXTDC SC1 Tier 3N+1 Edge Data Centre (Maroochydore)
- 290m2 technical space, 1MW IT Capacity and 84 rack capacity
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Hosts the international submarine cable and also provides access to 35Tbps of diverse fibre capacity to Brisbane
Sunshine Coast International Submarine Cable
- 550km cable connecting Maroochydore to the existing 9600km Japan-Sydney undersea cable
- 18Tbps wet link fibre capacity to Guam
- 24Tbps wet link fibre capacity to Sydney