Crikey, stone the crows, what's going on in CenITex?

Peter Dinham
Monday, 16 March 2009 15:28

IT Industry - Deals

A report on the Crikey website today claims that all is not well at CenITex, the Victorian Government agency which provides IT services to several state departments, with a Crikey 'tipster' claiming that there hasn’t been a full data backup at CenITex in more than a year.

According to Crikey’s correspondent, Stilgherrian, Crikey is the recipient of a serious allegation from a ‘tipster’ that “some time ago, what was the Shared Services Centre (SSC), realised they were unable to back up all the data they manage for the participating departments in the overnight time window. It says CenITex was created in July last year through the merger of the Treasury and Finance-owned SSC and Information and technology Services (IT&S).

"For over 12 months they have been taking only incremental backups... There is no disaster recovery in place. Everyone in CenITex is aware of this and are told to 'shut up'," alleges Crikey’s so-called tipster.

Crikey says that CenITex provides IT services to six out of 10 state departments in Victoria and services some 11,500 desktops in the Departments of Transport (DOT), Planning and Community Development (DPCD), Premier and Cabinet (DPC), Primary Industries (DPI), Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and Treasury and Finance (DTF).

Crikey’s Stilgherrian says questions have been put to CenITex about the status of data backups, including when the last full data backup was done?; when was the last test of a disaster-recovery from backup and what were the results?; and, is this status communicated up the chain to Ministerial level?

According to Crikey, CenITex is preparing a response, but it “couldn't be cleared through official channels” by Crikey's deadline this morning (Monday).

The answer, when and if it comes, should be interesting!