Datacom snares long white cloud contract

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:25

Datacom has secured a 10 year contract to provide cloud and data centre services to the New Zealand Government.

The Sydney-based Datacom Group has announced plans to build a new tier-three data centre in Hamilton following the success of its bid to be a preferred supplier of cloud and data centre services to the New Zealand Government. The contract provides for an optional five-year extension and is part of a cross-government ICT programme led by the Department of Internal Affairs to reduce costs and improve the effectiveness of government.

Datacom Group CEO, Jonathan Ladd said Datacom is continuing to invest in new cloud infrastructure right across the region. 'With Australia and particularly New Zealand recognised as high growth markets for cloud services, Datacom is continuing to invest significantly in infrastructure across the region, including expanding its Sydney cloud platform and establishing nodes in Melbourne and Brisbane to meet demand,' Ladd said.

'Datacom applauds the NZ Government's progressive initiative in establishing the provision of infrastructure as a service to its agencies, which we believe is a world-first on this all-of-government scale for a national administration,' Ladd added.

Technology to operate Datacom's cloud services is sourced from Cisco, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp, Symantec and VMware, and Datacom's New Zealand CEO, Greg Davidson, said a standalone cloud computing platform, Datacom Cloud Services for Government, would be available within 90 days.

'Storage and computer services will be provided in a range of price, performance, and availability tiers to meet varying agency requirements. An online portal will provide agencies with 'a single pane of glass' to view, provision and manage the services provided. The portal will be secured using the NZ Government's igovt identity verification service,' Davidson said.

The contract, signed yesterday, is for a period of 10 years with an optional five year extension. This initiative is part of a cross-government ICT programme led by the Department of Internal Affairs to reduce costs and improve the effectiveness of government.

Sydney-based Datacom Group CEO, Jonathan Ladd said Datacom is continuing to invest in new cloud infrastructure right across the region.

'With Australia and particularly New Zealand recognised as high growth markets for cloud services, Datacom is continuing to invest significantly in infrastructure across the region, including expanding its Sydney cloud platform and establishing nodes in Melbourne and Brisbane to meet demand,' Jonathan Ladd said.

'Datacom applauds the NZ Government's progressive initiative in establishing the provision of infrastructure as a service to its agencies, which we believe is a world-first on this all-of-government scale for a national administration,' Jonathan Ladd said.

Technology to operate Datacom's cloud services is sourced from Cisco, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp, Symantec and VMware.

Datacom's New Zealand CEO, Greg Davidson, said a standalone cloud computing platform, Datacom Cloud Services for Government, will be available within 90 days.

Davidson said that, to ensure ongoing data centre capacity Datacom will build a new tier-3 data centre in Hamilton on the North Island and extend existing cloud and data centre infrastructure in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Work on the new data centre has commenced and it will open in early 2013. According to Davidson, Datacom expects the very low earthquake risk profile of Hamilton to make that location an attractive site for both NZ government and commercial organisations to house IT systems.