A U S T R A L I A N I N G E N U I T Y & E N G I N E E R I N G
In Association With:
SUPPLYING
AUSTRALIA’S
DATA GUARDIANS The storage and analysis of data is at the basis of all government, commercial and even private activity these days. With the data storage growing rapidly in Australia, SRA Solutions is poised for an exciting phase of expansion
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he city of Queanbeyan, in the south of New South Wales and strategically situated between Sydney and Melbourne, is home to SRA Solutions, formerly known as Server Racks Australia, a specialist in precision steel manufacture and systems integration for the data centre market. It has been honing its expertise in this field for the last 30 years, and prides itself on sourcing its raw materials locally, from a supplier in Wollongong. As well as server racks it manufactures cabinets, termination boxes, and power rails for both government and commercial sectors at its sites, operating up to 21 hours per day, seven days a week, and employing 55 staff. The factory, with administrative and design facilities and 1,500 sqm in size, is located in the industrial area of East Queanbeyan on a 4,000 square metre block. The company runs its own transport regularly between Queanbeyan and Sydney, and has excellent contract freight services for interstate clients. SRA Solutions is an acknowledged leader in racks, rows and rooms. It aims to give its customers innovative answers in their search for more efficient and affordable IT infrastructure. The company combines state-of-the-art computer controlled equipment with a multi-skilled workforce and innovative manufacturing processes to produce commercial and SCEC endorsed racks and accessories. To guarantee the timely delivery, cost and quality expected by industry today, each rack
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‘THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA HAS SEEN SUBSTANTIAL EXPANSION OVER THE LAST SEVEN YEARS, AND THIS HAS ENCOURAGED INVESTMENT BY GLOBAL PROVIDERS OF COLOCATION, CLOUD AND OTHER SERVICES’
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is manufactured individually, which allows total flexibility in configuration to meet customer’s needs, including custom colours, ventilation and cooling systems and accessories. Its specialisation in close tolerance laser cut, turret punched and CNC folded components, makes it a preferred supplier of 19-inch racks to IT manufacturers and systems integrators throughout Australia. The data centre industry in Australia has seen substantial expansion over the last seven years, and this has encouraged investment by global providers of colocation, cloud and other services. Data centres are critical to every aspect of modern society – without them the world would grind to a halt.
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The stock exchanges, all air traffic, communications, social media and the internet would all disappear. We are constantly reporting how more and more large enterprises are moving their critical IT infrastructure from data centres to the cloud, but the ‘cloud’ itself only exists in a network of data centres, linked globally by undersea cables. Organisations have the benefit of downloading infrastructure development, automatic failover engineering, and multiple coordinated power supplies, physical security, backup, OS maintenance, and thirdparty data centres. That’s why “going to the cloud” ultimately makes sense. According to Frost & Sullivan, the Australian data centre services market will grow by 12.4% each year
up to 2022, an expansion driven by business, telecoms and government, as well as regular internet users. All the data generated by social media and the things we do on our mobiles and tablets is stored in a data centre somewhere, and Australia requires the internet service providers (ISPs) to store all internet activity, or metadata, for two years. Since they are so vital, data centres are shielded as thoroughly as the mint, as anyone who has visited one will testify. Their construction has to be extraordinarily robust to guard them against storm or seismic damage, and the systems inside them have to be utterly reliable. As servers generate a lot of heat, they have to be constantly cooled by air that is devoid
of dust and contamination, and fire protection systems have to be sound. It is also essential that the power supply is available at all times. Among the solutions SRA provides in partnership with major technology partners are the power distribution units (PDUs) that feed the racks, and the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) products from firms like ABB that ensure that backup kicks in without delay in the event of any power failure. To satisfy government contracts, all this equipment is required to meet the demands of the internationally recognised Security Construction and Equipment Committee (SCEC) standard. SRA is a recognised innovator and leader in the development of server rack
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The Critical Component Enlogic Systems designs and manufactures power distribution and management systems for use in the data center industry.
BASIC & INTELLIGENT RACK PDUs INLINE ENERGY METERS ENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS ELECTRONIC RACK ACCESS LOCKING POWER CORDS LEARN MORE
Suite 13 , Level 4 150 Albert Road South Melbourne Australia P: +61 3 9999 7303 E: shane.rowan@ enlogic.com GET CONNECT:
www.enlogic.com
‘ACCORDING TO FROST & SULLIVAN, THE AUSTRALIAN DATA CENTRE SERVICES MARKET WILL GROW BY 12.4% EACH YEAR UP TO 2022, AN EXPANSION DRIVEN BY BUSINESS, TELECOMS AND GOVERNMENT, AS WELL AS REGULAR INTERNET USERS’
designs, having developed a SCEC endorsed server rack which reduces energy consumption by 30%. This is a key contribution in a market where the pressure is on to reduce the huge amounts of energy needed to run a data centre and its support services. That product is known as SRA’s iPAMM (intelligent plenum air management module). It features a patented air management system, engineered and manufactured entirely in Australia, to give outstanding energy efficiency, reliability and security and price. SRA has also developed high density server rack solutions (up to 30kW) known as the iPAMM Cell, a stand-alone,
self-contained group of racks which can be fitted with its own dedicated fire detection and suppression system. It’s available in both SCEC and commercial configurations. Against the background of data centre expansion, SRA Solutions is in the best possible situation for expansion. Let’s take one of its most buoyant markets, the defence industry. In the current fiscal year, Australia’s defence spending is expected to reach A$34.7bn, as much as possible of this benefiting local manufacturers. But defence security goes beyond SCEC compliant products. SRA’s defence ready racks, SCEC cabinets and enclosures
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and its experience in delivering complex projects make it the first choice when it comes to complex turnkey defence grade projects. SRA’s customers are defence industry technology specialists who provide the Australian government with its future technologies across a wide range of sectors, including, air, land, sea, cybersecurity, intelligence, electronics, telecommunications, services, space, aerospace and ground transportation. As stated in a recently released Defence Department statement: “The 2017-18 budget maintains the government’s commitment to provide Defence with a stable and sustainable funding growth path; extra funding will be provided for increased spending on intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, space, electronic warfare, and cyber capabilities.” To make sure it’s ready to meet future demand, it is expanding its site at Endurance Avenue, Queanbeyan, adding new buildings that provide more multi-purpose space for office facilities, production, and warehousing. According to Managing
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Number of Employees at SRA Solutions Director Gordon Campbell: “SRA Solutions is ideally placed, as a longterm defence contractor, to take advantage of this increased defence spend. The technology industry moves so quickly that we need to constantly innovate to keep pace with the change and being a small company, we believe we’re able to move faster than others.” The new space will directly connect with SRA Solution’s existing infrastructure, growing its total production footprint to more than 4,000 sqm and is planned for completion in the third quarter of 2018. “This expansion is designed to help us grow, as well as facilitate a new approach to the manufacture and delivery of high quality data centre and defence solutions across Australia,” said Campbell.
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4-6 Endurance Avenue Queanbeyan East, New South Wales Australia, NSW 2620 Tel. (02) 6298 1855 www.srasolutions.com.au