Gen-i has won a five year contract to build and deploy the New Zealand Ministry of Education's cloud-based Identity and Access Management service. The new contract, to be delivered in partnership with Infosys and Hyro, is the first time the Ministry has outsourced its identity and access management services. The cloud service will provide secure access to potentially 32,000 users of applications or services at the Ministry, the Tertiary Education Commission and NZ Qualifications Authority.
Murray Young, Gen-i's General Manager for Professional Services, said that the new deal builds on Gen-i's long standing relationship with the Ministry of Education through providing a range of voice, mobile and data services.
'We have a strong track record with the education sector in New Zealand and our team worked very closely with the Ministry of Education to understand their unique challenges and deliver an Identity and Access Management solution that was cost effective and robust. Crucially, our proposal was scalable - meaning that it can address the future needs of the education system as it changes.
'We're delighted that they have again opted to partner with us and we're looking forward to delivering a solution that ensures critical information is stored locally within New Zealand while benefitting from our expertise and ongoing investment in world class infrastructure.'
The new Identity and Access Management Service will be delivered as a Software as a Service and will be hosted locally in Gen-i's data centres using Gen-i's ReadyCloud service. The solution removes the need to purchase costly servers and underlying support infrastructure, and will allow the education sector to benefit from a much more efficient and reliable service.
Infosys will be managing the deployment and ongoing management within the Gen-i ReadyCloud infrastructure. Melbourne-based digital agency Hyro will be providing its IdaptiveTM identity management software, already being used by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, to be deployed as the new Identity and Access Management service.
Leanne Gibson, Chief Information Officer at the Ministry of Education, said that the delivery of the new Identity and Access Management service as a cloud based service shows a significant new direction for service delivery by the Ministry.
'We were impressed with the use of this service by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and immediately saw the potential for deploying this solution for New Zealand education providers.'
Anthony Poiner, CEO for Hyro, said that businesses and government agencies were increasingly looking to benefit from Identity and Access Management but not necessarily run it themselves.
'We firmly believe that our IdaptiveTM software provides the highest levels of reliability and robustness for Identity and Access management services.
'Already it is currently used by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to manage the identities of over 1.5 million parents, teachers and students. This agreement with Gen-i is a significant step towards further major deployments in New Zealand and Australia,' he said.
Patrick Kouwenhoven, Head of New Zealand Operations at Infosys, said that the program will harness Infosys' global expertise as a cloud ecosystem integrator.
'For New Zealanders to enjoy all the cost and flexibility advantages of the cloud, it's critical that these cloud services are delivered with world-class security tools and methods. This project will deliver a strong foundation for the Ministry of Education's users, and creates a platform other government agencies can use to undertake secure cloud services in the future.'
The contract was awarded via competitive tender with the first application to be delivered by July this year and the full Identity Access and Management service to be deployed by 30 November 2012.
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