HP announced a $120 million datacenter in Australia, to be completed in the Western Sydney area (30-40 miles west of Sydney's central business district) this year. In making the announcement, the company noted that Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) initiative was "the incentive," according to the country's Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy. "(The NBN) is the reason for corporations to look to Australia and our ICT sector."

The NBN promises to deliver gigabit service to more than 90% of the country as it is rolled out over the next few years.

Good on ya, mate. Australia has been notable for its over-reliance on raw materials exports for decades. Although the country enjoys an overall wealth in the top tier of the world's nations, it has long been seen as an IT laggard.

Overall IT spend in Australia represents less than 5% of its overall economy; compare that to 6.8% for Canada, 7.3% for the US, and levels of 8% and above in major, fast-growing nations such as South Korea, South Africa, and Malaysia.

The datacenter is part of what HP says will be a $1 billion "renewal" of its global services infrastructure. The facility is projected to employ about 200 people.

A senior HP exec said he thinks "cloud services adoption will take off" in the Asian-Pacific region, and that the new datacenter will play a major role in meeting the demand for these services.

Debate over the NBN in Australia has been fierce, with two competing plans under discussion. Political careers are being staked, and ruined, on it, as this debate sometimes reaches levels that Americans mght associate with health care and Europeans with their currency. I've written a little bit more about the NDN and what it may mean.

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