AGIMO readies data centre panel contract

James Riley
Thursday, 10 September 2009 14:29

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The panel contract for the biggest-ticket item on the Australian Government’s ICT shopping list – the provision of data centre services – will be announced by the end of the month, the Commonwealth’s chief information officer Ann Steward says.

Steward told iTWire she expects to name four to five data centre providers inside two weeks, with not all of the likely panel winners located in Canberra.

The panel announcement would go a long way to informing what the shape of Government’s data centre plans for the longer term will be, and will certainly be an indicator of the thinking behind its strategic data centre policy development.

The Australian Government Information Management Office, which is pursing the whole of government strategic overhaul of data centre policy – and the Finance agency that Steward runs – says it is on target to hand its rethink to Government by the end of the year.

"We have done a lot of work around the primary trends in the  industry in terms of what they are doing with data centre services, data centre technology directions, and in terms of vision and pathway," Steward said.

"And we have completed a lot of work going on in terms of demand, getting more detailed clarity from our agencies on their expected demands over a 10 to 15 year timeframe," she said.

"End of the year is our timeframe for having our strategy and our proposals on this to Government, and we’re working hard to that target date."

Steward says the strategic directions paper would likely outline a flexible mix of options for agencies – and did not mean the Australian Government would necessarily build its own data centre as part of any consolidation program

"The Government never committed to building a government data centre. . . this is more about how Government’s data centre needs for that period will be best served."

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