With energy usage and costs continuing to rise, expect to see businesses moving towards a more holistic and end-to-end approach to data centre strategy. [ + ]

TPG would have to split its wholesale and retail operations in order to run its planned FTTB network under a plan drafted by the federal government; Russian hackers exploit Windows 7 to infiltrate NATO and the Ukrainian government; and Dropbox denies a 7-million password hack. [ + ]

Australian business leaders are significantly less likely than the global average to believe big data provides significant value, and to be satisfied with the results of their initiatives, a survey indicates. [ + ]

NBN Co has listed the first 140 suburbs due to be connected to the network via FTTN technology using Telstra's copper lines, as part of the government's multi-technology trial. [ + ]

Arcitecta has announced a deal to supply a data management platform for the Research Data Storage Infrastructure, a project to build a national database for Australian researchers. [ + ]

Almost 75% of business leaders in Australia say that custom-built applications are vital to their organisation's success, but far fewer have a strategy in place to meet these expectations. [ + ]

The Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative facility has been awarded $6.6m by the state government, ensuring its world-leading technology research stays in Victoria. [ + ]

What is the purpose of a data centre? Is it simply a place for you to plug in your servers, or can it address a higher business purpose? [ + ]

This week we look at a UK government tax computer system that can't add up, continuing problems with Sydney's Opal transport card, a Tor router that keeps you anonymous on the 'net, US$110 million up for grabs for photonics chips, and cute but sinister swarming drones. [ + ]

Pacnet will offer network and managed services to New South Wales Government departments using the consolidated Silverwater data centre. [ + ]

At Dell's User Forum in Sydney the company announced new cloud collaborations, as well as an NFV platform and next-generation firewall. [ + ]

SAP and IBM have teamed up to accelerate the adoption of cloud-based enterprise applications, in part to quell data sovereignty fears over US surveillance. [ + ]

With big data and services growing six times faster than the overall ICT market, data centre operations must be capable of handling the rapidly increasing costs that come with retention of big data so as to save money and cut down on inefficiencies. [ + ]

Leaked documents suggest the US National Security Agency may have placed undercover operatives inside technology companies, Twitter has taken the US government to court over surveillance requests and Telstra wants to raise fixed-line rates by 7.2%. [ + ]

The real estate mantra is 'location, location, location' - which often means 'inner city'. But for data centres this is no longer necessarily true, especially when easy access to energy and low-cost rent in rural and regional areas is factored in. [ + ]