The Australian Government is investing over $12 million towards Canberra manufacturer Datapod to ensure that the Department of Defence has access to modular data centres that it can deploy at short notice.
Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price, who toured the company’s facility last Sunday, stated that Datapod was an excellent example of an innovative Australian company that can provide rapid solutions to Defence’s changing capability needs.
“Investment in Australia’s sovereign industrial capability is essential to ensure Defence can effectively respond at short notice to whatever challenges or threats it faces,” Minister Price said.
“Our Defence Force needs to be agile and responsive at all times.”
Datapod is an Australian-owned company that manufactures scalable modular data centre infrastructure, deployment and sustainment services that are capable of delivering world-class data centre systems globally.
The company’s data centres can be scaled for different needs and can operate effectively with many potential and emerging technologies and platforms.
Datapod has previously supplied data centres to the Department of Defence, integrating them with the existing and planned operational platforms and Information and Communications Technology equipment.
Minister Price stated that the Australian Government’s funding towards local companies recognises the need to have assets on-hand that can be deployed and re-deployed to meet the government’s operational needs without unnecessary delays caused by constructing facilities with a long lead time.
Aside from this, it is expected that the investment will also help secure local jobs and assist with expanding sovereign manufacturing capacity so that it can assist the Department of Defence’s capability needs in the future.
Senator for the ACT Zed Seselja said Datapod was a prime example of Canberra’s thriving defence industry community.
“The Liberal-National Government’s continuing investment in Canberra’s defence industry will not only support local jobs and skills in Canberra, but will also ensure members of the Canberra defence industry community continue to be engaged in developing cutting-edge technologies for Australia’s Defence Force,” Senator Seselja said.
Source: Minister for Defence Industry Media Release