Andrew Kirker (CDC)
Canberra Data Centres (CDC) has appointed its general manager for enterprise and data centre infrastructure Andrew Kirker as the new managing director for its business in New Zealand.
The move comes as the company, which is 48 per cent owned by NZX-listed Infratil, confirms plans to develop two hyperscale data centres on development sites in Auckland.
As reported by Reseller News, CDC registered a local subsidiary in New Zealand in February, just months before Microsoft revealed plans to establish its first data centre region in New Zealand, a project expected to take around two years with a price tag of $80-100 million.
While CDC’s announcement that it would build the two data centres in New Zealand did not mention Microsoft or its intention to establish a cloud availability region in New Zealand, CDC provides those facilities for Microsoft in Australia.
Until the new company registration, CDC has not had a direct presence in New Zealand. According to the registration records, CDC Datacentres NZ Ltd has two Australian directors and one New Zealand-based director, that being Kirker.
Now, with Auckland-based Kirker taking the reins in New Zealand, the data centre operator is set to embark on a build that is expected to take a little under two years to complete.
“It's wonderful to be back home and bringing CDC's highly secure and innovative data centre offer to New Zealand,” a post on Kirker’s LinkedIn profile stated. “We are really looking forward to expanding our team of passionate data centre professionals and building these two world-class hyperscale facilities.”
While Kirker has spent the better part of the past year as general manager of enterprise and data centre infrastructure strategy for CDC, the role comes off the back of more than eight years at Schneider Electric, where he most recently held the role of general manager for data centres.
Kirker has also clocked well over a decade with APC by Schneider Electric, both in New Zealand and Australia. He was the vendor’s country manager for New Zealand for more than six years before he headed up sales for the organisation across Australia and New Zealand from 2011 to 2015.
