CAUDIT Cloud: Powering the Next Generation of Research Infrastructure in Australia
TL;DR
CAUDIT Cloud is a sector-aligned initiative developed in partnership with Macquarie Cloud Services and Dell to provide sovereign, future-ready cloud and data centre capabilities for the Australian education and research sector. With rising AI workloads, extreme heat densities, and growing compliance needs, CAUDIT Cloud offers universities and research institutions simplified procurement, scalable infrastructure, and hyperscale-style efficiencies, all built on Macquarie Cloud Services’ sovereign data centres and private cloud expertise.
The Australasian eResearch Conference brings together leaders across research, technology, and digital infrastructure to discuss challenges shaping the future. In this dynamic environment, one topic is drawing significant attention: how to support the explosive demand for AI, data-intensive research, and high-performance computing.
A major part of the answer can be found in CAUDIT Cloud. To explore this further, Macquarie Cloud Services’ Head of Azure, Naran McClung, sat down with Principal Consultant Ben Svalbe for a conversation.
Developed through collaboration between CAUDIT, Macquarie Cloud Services, and Dell Technologies, CAUDIT Cloud gives education and research institutions access to sovereign, scalable cloud and data centre services tailored specifically for their needs.
What Is CAUDIT Cloud?
CAUDIT Cloud is a curated catalogue of cloud, data centre, and technology services procured through CAUDIT’s trusted sector framework. Its purpose is to make it easier for universities and research institutions to access:
- Sovereign cloud services
- High-density, AI-capable data centre infrastructure
- Competitive pricing
- Pre-approved procurement pathways
- Enterprise-grade hardware via Dell Technologies
- Managed cloud services from Macquarie Cloud Services
It streamlines the journey for institutions that need secure, scalable, and compliant environments, without the barriers typically associated with large infrastructure projects.
Future-Proofing for AI and Research Workloads
Research workloads are scaling faster than traditional data centre designs can support. AI, machine learning, simulation modelling, and large-scale data analytics are pushing power and cooling requirements to new extremes.
Macquarie Cloud Services is actively engineering for this future:
- Moving from 5–10 kW racks to 500–600 kW per rack within the decade
- Adopting liquid cooling and next-gen thermal engineering
- Building sovereign data centres tailored specifically for AI workloads
- Enabling hyperscale-style procurement and power management
More Than Colocation, A Fully Integrated Service Model
Unlike traditional colocation providers, Macquarie Cloud Services brings a dual capability that uniquely benefits the CAUDIT community:
1. We operate sovereign data centres built for next-gen workloads.
- Including cutting-edge cooling, power, sustainability, and physical security.
2. We are a managed cloud and services provider.
Meaning we support, host, optimise, and integrate the workloads that run inside our facilities.
This means institutions can partner with one provider for:
- Hosting
- Management
- Sovereignty
- Security
- Procurement
- Scalability
A rare and powerful combination in the Australian market.
Strengthening the Sector, Not Replacing It
CAUDIT Cloud is intentionally designed to work alongside existing national digital research infrastructures, not compete with them. Providers like ARDC play essential roles, and CAUDIT Cloud complements these by filling infrastructure and capability gaps.
Where universities need sovereign capability, extreme-density AI infrastructure, or cost-efficient procurement models, CAUDIT Cloud provides that foundation while supporting sector collaboration.
A Conference Buzz Backed by Real Capability
The discussion reflects a broader energy at the eResearch Conference: growing excitement around what’s now possible when sovereign infrastructure, smart procurement, and next-generation engineering come together.
With CAUDIT Cloud, Macquarie Cloud Services and Dell are helping build the backbone for Australia’s next decade of research innovation.
Full Interview Transcript.
Right. Well, so I’m Naran McClung. You all know that already, but I’m here with a good friend of mine and colleague Ben Svalbe. We are at the Australasia eResearch Conference. Now, Ben, in part, we’re here to talk about CAUDIT Cloud. What on earth is CAUDIT Cloud?
Well, Naran, great to see you here today on this wonderful kick-off morning to the AeRO conference.
How many people are here? This is packed!
It’s amazing.
Absolutely packed.
And, we’re really happy to be talking to a huge group of this research community. Let me give you a bit of a quick answer about that, CAUDIT Cloud in its capabilities in the context here. CAUDIT Cloud’s an initiative, really that we’ve worked through with CAUDIT themselves. It’s in partnership with Dell, and it really brings to the forefront Macquarie Cloud Services offerings specifically towards the education sector. And, I guess the context here is very much around the research workload requirements in the sector as well. There’s a couple of particularly tailored products to research. Others are more to a broader education agenda, but if I was to talk to a couple of the really specific, I guess would you say offerings as such, or services for CAUDIT Cloud? One we’re showcasing today is the secure AVD. It’s actually also incorporated into our little competition here where you can win a Dell laptop, and that’s where we’re using some AI that’s housed on Macquarie’s CAUDIT Cloud, private Cloud infrastructure.
Got it. So sovereign AI capabilities?
Sovereign AI, correct, and that’s also harnessing a secure AVD that came about through some requirements in the sector for an Essential Eight maturity level two curated workspace where effectively, we could maintain a lot of compliance, and effectively a lot of guardrails around Essential Eight, hand that over as a turnkey product. So we’re using that as part of our little competition over there as song generation. The second thing we’re covering here is around the idea of sovereign and compliant data centre space. As you know, we’re very much in the game of data centre services and building out those data centres. We’ve got already a catalogue across the eastern seaboard of Australia and building out across into WA, et cetera. The point being that those data centre services very much focus, especially where we’re building them ourselves, on AI workloads. We’re dealing with the heat density, like nothing we’ve ever seen we’re coming from fives and 10 kilowatt racks to potentially by the end of the decade, looking at five to 600 kilowatts per rack. That’s a totally different cooling game. So, the message we are trying to get across is that it’s future proofing your data centre services.
Yes.
But not just then the cooling and the power that goes with that and the cost management that goes with that as well, enabling our customers to procure a bit more like a hyperscaler, and with so much power consumption, it changes the paradigm.
Yes.
And flip that as well with not just a co-location provider. So, we’re a service provider who has data centres, which is I guess a capability that doesn’t exist for most pure play colocation providers.
I think there’s a few maturities there, right? So obviously we’ve been in the data centre game for a while. We reside over the largest private cloud in Australia as well, so we can host the workloads as well. I know that we’re building data centres for the modern era, and you talked about heat densities and liquid cooling, things like that, that are happening within our data centre space at the moment, which is amazing. So, if I wrap it all up and we’ve got sovereign capabilities, we’ve got the data centre, we’ve got the buying power, our partnership with Dell, a hugely important strategic partner of ours. You wrap all that together and you’ve kind of got all the ingredients that an eResearch punter would want.
Correct. Very much the foundational components and, and we are all about as well, solving the niche problems. Um, there’s a lot of fantastic, um, providers and vendors to the sector here. If I look around the room, you’ve got ARDC and others who are really focused on serving that community, AARNet as well. We’re not trying to replace those guys. We’re trying to compliment those where there’s in partnership, where there’s gaps in the requirements and what’s needed by the sector.
Love it. Awesome. Well exciting, a great buzz here, Ben. Thank you so much. I’m sure we’ll talk again.
Thank you, Naran.
Thank you.
