Macquarie Telecom and Macquarie Cloud Services, part of Macquarie Telecom Group, have signed a deal with Horizon Power to transition its workloads to a private cloud environment and reduce its data centre footprint. Horizon is responsible for distributing and retailing electricity to over 44,000 clients over 2.6 million sq. km in Western Australia, including to mining sites. Over the last decade, Horizon has integrated solar and wind into its operations.
Why Horizonmove its workloads to private cloud?
According to Jeff Campbell, Horizon Power’s Senior Manager Technology, the provider’s decision to move its workloads from on-premises data centres to a private cloud environment was spurred by the sole desire to bring cleaner services to the company’s customers, and the State Government’s carbon emissions reduction target of 80% by 2030.
“To achieve the target, we are looking at how to build more digital and IoT-related services and remove the cost and complexity of managing servers, server clusters, storage devices and backup processes. This will ultimately allow us to reduce our data centre footprint and corresponding energy consumption,” Jeff Campbell said commenting on the partnership.
He said that the deal will improve efficiency for Horizon, supporting the rapid deployment of applications and equipping Western Australia’s remote energy provider with a new set of advanced tools. “Straight out of the box, Macquarie showed a deep understanding of what we were trying to achieve and how they could work with us to execute our goals,” he said.
“We’re introducing technologies that provide condition-based monitoring, like LiDAR drones and IoT sensors. This allows us to capture and crunch data so we can make assets more efficient. For instance, we can send field staff only to the assets requiring maintenance or get detailed data to provide better services and products for customers in specific areas.”
Why did Horizon Power turn to Macquarie?
Campbell said Macquarie was selected for the partnership for its ability to innovatively manage Horizon Power’s operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) environment. Macquarie’s sovereignty and security credentials were also considered, with onshore data storage and maintenance providing assurance from a compliance perspective.
Commenting on the partnership, Macquarie Telecom WA State Manager Aaron Tighe said: “Power is essential to Australia’s backbone, and it’s never been more important to handle it in a way that balances sustainability, reliability, and affordability. I’m proud our work with Horizon Power is playing a part in creating better experiences for those in regional WA”.
