ICT & digital
Sydney: mapping out a future for Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
When Google invented Google Maps from its Sydney office, NSW showed it was firmly on the global ICT map. As the largest ICT industry in Australia, it’s one of the strengths of the NSW economy. And many of the global players basing their headquarters in Sydney include Microsoft, Google, IBM, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and Oracle, Novell and Hewlett Packard. Sydney leads the way, home to nearly 40 per cent of the country’s creative and digital workforce, and more than 60 per cent of Australia’s ICT regional headquarters and operations centres. And, investment by ICT companies in NSW is bolstered by the region’s strong research and development capabilities. Scientists based in Sydney produced key Wi-Fi technology, and Australia’s ICT Research Centre of Excellence, NICTA, spin-off company Open Kernel Labs, produced software used in more than 1.5 billion mobile phones worldwide. “Sydney’s got a visionary culture and a feel to it, because it’s not tied up in a lot of old traditions, we’re able to meld different types of traditions and see how they work together and take them forward,” says Pia Winberg, CEO of Venus Shell Systems. “There’s no door that’s closed, there’s no idea that is forbidden, and so we can afford to be really creative and innovative, share those ideas here, get them knocked about with different peoples’ perspectives and come up with things that will really work in the future.”
Fast facts
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Communications 2014 Sydney was host to this important global ICT conference at the Hilton Sydney in June 2014. Around 1,400 international communication technology experts, with a large contingent from North America and China, attended to brainstorm the next generation of wireless technologies, under the conference theme: ‘Communications: The Centrepoint of the Digital Economy’. In 2017, IEEE will return to Sydney for its IEEE Semiannual Vehicular Technology Conference at ICC Sydney, continuing the collaboration between international and local talent.
• NSW leads the nation in ICT research capabilities – home to NICTA, Australia’s largest organisation dedicated to ICT research • The State has five national centres of excellence in ICT-related research fields, two co-operative research centres and four R&D facilities
Digital and creative media: a hotbed of world-class leading talent When it comes to innovation in digital media, NSW stands out. With leading media companies, creative talent, world-class visual effects, post-production and motion capture studios, it’s home to almost half of Australia’s film and television businesses and industry workforce. As in other global cities, Sydney has seen a considerable convergence of the ICT, creative and entertainment industries. And Inner Sydney has the highest concentration of creative digital businesses in Australia - film, video and TV production and distribution, publishing and printing, advertising, design, arts and recorded media. South of the CBD is Sydney’s start-up precinct, aimed at showcasing new products and services to an international audience, and to world leaders that come into Sydney. Developed in conjunction with the University of Technology Sydney and other key stakeholders, the hub encourages a diverse local economy, providing purpose-built, low-cost workspaces for start-up ventures and social initiatives in creative industries.
Case studies Synnex Australia
Just 30 minutes from the centre of Sydney, the largest construction boom has been underway in Greater West Sydney since the 2000 Olympics. ICT is one of the growth sectors in Sydney with a range of technology parks. Global IT supply chain services company, Synnex Australia, is investing A$45 million in a fully-automated logistics centre in this area of the city. Rackspace US company Rackspace is the world’s largest provider of ‘managed hosting’, and also provides cloud computing and hosted email services. Rackspace chose to develop a data centre in Sydney, attracted by the large number of multinationals as potential clients and the city’s highly-skilled workforce.
8 SYDNEY | 2014 | INTELLECTUAL CAPITALS
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