What entrance security drift is really costing your data centre
“Loss” in a data centre environment typically means breaches, outages, or downtime. But some of the most significant losses caused by physical security weaknesses don’t show up in those reports at all. Instead, they creep up slowly through little deviations from defined access control procedures that […]
Sucker rod guide design, manufacture heating up!
A project supported by the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) links Oilfield Piping Systems (OPS) and The University of Queensland (UQ) to develop more durable sucker rod guides, essential components for the oil and gas industry. Sucker rods are critical components in artificial lift systems, specifically sucker rod pumps […]
Gas reservation doesn’t fix Australia’s manufacturing competitiveness, analysis finds
Artificially oversupplying the gas market under the Federal Government’s proposed reservation scheme would do little to improve the competitiveness of Australia’s largest manufacturers while risking investment in future gas supply, independent analysis by Wood Mackenzie has found. Wood Mackenzie analysed the gas costs of 13 of the largest industrial gas […]
SoundPLAN presents new open-air and advanced industrial noise assessment tools at INTER-NOISE 2026
SoundPLAN and its Australian distribution partner, Marshall Day Acoustics, will present new open-air noise prediction capabilities alongside advanced industrial and psychoacoustic noise assessment tools at INTER-NOISE 2026. Meet the team at Stands 18 and 19 at the Adelaide Convention Centre, Australia, from 9-12 August. Efficient open-air event noise prediction For […]
Australia needs to back itself
By Rob Williamson, President of the Gladstone Engineering Alliance and Managing Director of Alpha HPA. I had the opportunity to join business leaders from across Australia at an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry event in Sydney last week alongside Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres. The conversation focused on […]
Call for entries for Kemppi Australia’s 2026 Art of Welding Competition
Kemppi Australia has launched its 2026 Art of Welding Competition, inviting welders, artists and metalworking enthusiasts to demonstrate their creativity through original metalwork creations. The competition celebrates the artistic possibilities of welding, with entrants encouraged to submit works including sculptures, decorative pieces, motifs, patterned designs and other fabricated objects. Projects […]
Colli’s $5.5m manufacturing facility upgrade to help fast-track housing
A $5.5 million upgrade of Colli Timber & Hardware’s manufacturing facility in Cardup is set to quadruple the number of framing systems the company can craft each year, helping to fast-track WA’s housing supply. Colli will match the $2.734 million recently awarded to its parent company, Cardoso Pty Ltd, through […]
Australian manufacturers are facing their biggest energy risk in decades – Most haven’t noticed yet
By Jonathan Pooch Let me be direct: most Australian manufacturers are carrying a significant energy risk right now, and most of them don’t know it. That world of low, stable energy prices where energy sat in the engineering manager’s inbox and not the boardroom is gone. And the organisations that […]
Wind and Transmission Towers a Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity for Australian Manufacturing
Weld Australia says renewable infrastructure build-out can unlock jobs, capability and regional industrial growth Weld Australia has welcomed growing momentum behind domestic wind and transmission tower manufacturing, describing it as one of the most significant industrial opportunities available to Australia’s fabrication, steel and manufacturing sectors. The Federal […]
Cooling is becoming the constraint: how data centre design is changing under pressure
Data centres have traditionally been designed with a focus on compute capacity, with cooling treated as a supporting system that can be scaled as needed. That assumption no longer holds. As demand for data processing continues to grow, driven by cloud services and artificial intelligence, cooling is becoming a primary […]
Power surge: Deakin study finds sharing energy cuts costs and boosts fairness
Australia’s first-ever large-scale randomised control trial exploring a new technology that enables households and small businesses to buy and sell solar and battery power, has found to have increased access to solar and battery use, lower electricity prices, and encourage greater perceptions of a fairer energy system. The Virtual Energy […]
Fuji SMBE Macquarie and New Edge Group deliver critical electrical infrastructure for major fulfilment centre
Fuji SMBE Macquarie and New Edge Group have collaborated to deliver critical electrical infrastructure to a major new fulfilment centre in Western Sydney, NSW. This project is the first of two new fulfilment centres being built, with $490 million being invested across both facilities. This first facility spans 80,000 square […]
What entrance security drift is really costing your data centre
“Loss” in a data centre environment typically means breaches, outages, or downtime. But some of the most significant losses caused by physical security weaknesses don’t show up in those reports at all. Instead, they creep up slowly through little deviations from defined access control procedures that don’t cause incidents on their own, but steadily increase labour costs, create compliance exposure, and reduce operational efficiency over time. Because entrances are operational systems with a direct impact on how smoothly and reliably your data centre runs day-to-day. Entrances are often treated as fixed controls… not dynamic risk points Power systems are redundant. Cooling is monitored. Networks are load-tested, patched, and hardened against evolving threats. Entrances rarely receive the same treatment. Too often, they’re designed, deployed, and then forgotten, typically considered “good enough” once access card readers function and access appears restricted. Eventually, this can lead to a disconnect between how entrances were designed to perform and how they actually operate in practice. As staffing levels become stretched, people start optimising for speed. Nothing fails. But the process no longer works as designed. Operational efficiency starts to slip, slowly at first Compromised entrance security often begins with a loss of operational efficiency. When your access controls can’t consistently enforce one-person-per-credential entry, that responsibility falls back to your guards and staff. Someone has to watch entrances more closely, guide people where they need to go, and manually approve access exceptions, like when: Guards are occupied handling routine access instead of monitoring cameras Employees stop to resolve credential issues or receive manual access Contractors wait for escorts or someone to resolve confusion Entry lines clog during shift changes or peak activity periods Employees and guards become traffic cops rather than risk assessors. Guard coverage turns into a hidden expense Entrances that […]