Data centre plans will be Green: Tanner

James Riley
Monday, 02 November 2009 06:58

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Green considerations would be central to the development of the Commonwealth new data centre strategy, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said.

The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) is nearing completion of a data centre strategy document that is likely to see a consolidation of facilities. The report is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

And Mr Tanner said he has no preconceived view on whether the Commonwealth’s data centre needs are met by government owned and operated facilities, or if they are held by the private sector.

"The question of location and diversification of electricity supply, back-up arrangements, use of redundancy capacity – all of those things are obviously bread and butter issues that are central to the development of the strategy," Mr Tanner told iTWire.

"But the Green issues are central. Clearly electricity use by data centres is growing and there is an issue there about how we can minimise that electricity use," he said.

"In a situation where economic efficiency needs and environmental needs are broadly in alignment, we want to maximise the efficiency of the way we manage data. And one of the central elements of that is minimising you electricity consumption."

Mr Tanner said high-speed network technology gave Government more flexibility in the location of its data centres, but he said different agencies had different needs, and he would wait to see the recommendations of the AGIMO strategy.

Whether or not facilities would be need to be owned and operated by the Commonwealth would differ from agency to agency.

"I have no pre-conceived position that says we should own them," Mr Tanner said. "but there are certain situations – the department of Defence is one – where there is very good reason that things are done in-house."

"But those sorts of considerations might not apply in other areas," he said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Finance is at the early stages of considering proposals from departments and agencies that will attract funding reinvestment as a result of Gershon savings.

Government said it planned to reinvest 50 per cent of the Gershon savings into new productivity projects. But Mr Tanner said "we won’t automatically spend all of the money that’s available … the proposals will have to be of suitable quality."

"Basically value for money for Australian taxpayers is the criteria. This not about funding experiments. It's just about improving our ICT architecture and improving what we do and how efficiently we deliver services."