Alphabet's Google does a great many things beyond having a monopoly on Internet search and advertising. Like cloud computing, a big and growing market Google's number three in, after Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Related to Google's cloud effort, the company funds and organises subsea cables laid under the oceans, so as to connect its different regions. Most recently, Google Cloud announced the Australia Connect initiative.
There aren't many technical details available for Australia Connect, but it is being built in partnership with state and local governments in Darwin, Perth, and the Sunshine Coast; regional network backbone operator Vocus, whose New Zealand arm merged with 2degrees in 2022, is involved, along with rapidly expanding Aussie data centre builder NEXTDC, and Bevan Slattery's cable company SUBCO is in on the project too.
Vocus expects to have 20-30 terabits per second capacity on the cable system, which is an indicator of the growing demand in the region.
It's a big project, spanning 42,500 kilometres and bound to cost a goodly amount; how much was not revealed. It'll comprise two new cables: Bosun that connects Darwin to Christmas Island, and the more prosaically named interlink that hooks up Melbourne and Perth with the said Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean. From Christmas Island, it's onwards to Singapore and Asia for the cable.
Google visualises Australia Connect like this:
Like so many maps of that part of the Pacific, there's something missing. The two decent sized islands that form Aotearoa New Zealand, the ones that embraced and extended Australia in a close economic relationships for the past four decades.
That's similar to how Google Cloud visualised the Pacific Connect initiative, comprising two cables, Tabua and Honomoana, and which was announced last year:
When news of that cable system appeared last year, it did look like New Zealand had been left out of the Google connectivity loop. If you look at the Honomoana cable though, there's a little branching unit icon. Vocus has a less stylised illustration of the Pacific Connect route, and you can see a spur to Auckland being planned:
The backdrop here is Australia is undergoing a data centre boom, almost everywhere in the country, including the Northern Territory, due to growing cloud computing and artificial intelligence demand. That's bringing in big money from Big G which already has two regions in Australia:
"Google is deeply committed to building a strong digital future for all Australians. In 2021, we launched the Digital Future Initiative, a $1 billion AU$, five-year initiative that builds on our long-term commitment to infrastructure, local partnerships, and research capabilities. Analysys Mason estimates Google’s previous submarine cable deployments in Australia will lead to a cumulative increase in GDP of $98.5 billion AU$ ($64 billion US$) between 2022 and 2026 and support the creation of around 68,000 additional jobs by 2027."
Whether any of that will spill over to New Zealand via the Auckland spur, which isn't yet built, or otherwise, is a who-knows question. There are hyperscale data centres going up in New Zealand, such as the Microsoft Azure region in Auckland constructed in partnership with CCL, and Google said in 2022 that it too intends to build in New Zealand.
Perhaps Google Cloud will have something to announce at some stage, and maybe even include New Zealand on future maps?
5 Comments
Agree - surely you plonk data centres in the middle of Australia, attached to nuclear, and then run NZ's data cable across to the Aus data centres. Not sure why you would put data centres in NZ where there is a higher risk of tsunami, volcano, earthquake, cyclone, flooding.
Australia has its own environmental challenges, but keeping data centres close to users means applications are more responsive due to the lower latency. There's also the somewhat peculiar "data sovereignty" requirement, keeping your information within a particular jurisdiction, which is becoming increasingly important for customers. Snipping a subsea cable or two could also be problematic if everything's hosted in Australia.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.