Global provider of data centre solutions Digital Realty Trust announced today that the two data centre developments it is building in Western Sydney are expected to have a positive economic impact on the region, estimated at almost a quarter billion dollars.

The data centre developments are expected to provide approximately 250 jobs in the Western Sydney Employment Hub. Spending on local labour and projected overall construction costs are expected to be in excess of $200 million, based on current projections and estimates.

"In addition to direct expenditure totaling nearly $250 million, we believe there will be a ripple effect on regional businesses, further benefiting Western Sydney," said Kris Kumar, Regional Head, Asia Pacific, and Vice President Corporate Development, Digital Realty.

"There is also potential for training and skills development for employees in the data centre industry."

Digital Realty acquired a 3.48 hectare development site at Erskine Park for approximately $10.7 million, and previously announced plans for approximately 18,600 square meters of data centre development with over 11.5MW of IT capacity.

The company has secured permits for the development and plans to commence construction of the initial phase, a 9,300 square meter data centre, in mid October 2011. The first building is designed to support four 1440 kW Turn-Key Datacentres.

The Erskine Park development is Digital Realty's first project in Australia. Adding to its commitment to the Australian market, the company recently announced the acquisition of a 30,250 square meter development site in western Melbourne.

Kris Kumar said, "We are actively engaged in discussions with a number of serious prospects for our Australian data centres. Meanwhile, we have established our headquarters in North Sydney and have built our Australian operating platform with the addition of several new local team members.

"With our Australian staff in place, we will be able to deliver secure, reliable and cost effective data centre solutions to customers that are expanding their IT operations in the region. Consistent with our typical development timeline, we expect a 12-month construction period to complete the first building's shell and core and the first four 1440 kW Turn-Key Datacentre PODs at Erskine Park."

Each Digital Realty Turn-Key Datacentre facility is physically secure and features a state-of-the-art power and cooling architecture that has been optimized for green operation. Every Turn-Key Datacentre is built using the Company's proprietary POD Architecture(R) and uses metered power to ensure that clients pay only for the power that they use. The facility also comes standard with Digital Realty's PowerVU software, which enables centralized monitoring and management of data centre power consumption, energy efficiency and load analysis.