AGIMO looks into datacentre ownership
The Federal Government has said that it's tracking well with the implementation of datacentre reforms and has aired plans for a study into a federally owned and run datacentre as a way of reducing cost.
The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) held a datacentre strategy briefing in Canberra yesterday which briefly discussed the progress of implementing Sir Peter Gershon's datacentre recommendations.
In the briefing, AGIMO said that it had learned to maintain good dialogue with industry through its blog and tender statements, as well as engaging in discussions through the Datacentre Cross Agency Working Group.
AGIMO also announced that the government intends to conduct a feasibility study to assess whether a federally managed datacentre would be faster and cheaper than outsourcing to external providers.
"This investigation will help determine whether there is value in adopting a Build-Own-Operate model for datacentre management, or whether it is more cost effective to maintain a Lease-Develop-Operate model," AGIMO said in its presentation.
The announcement comes as the Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) issued a tender to redevelop the core infrastructure of its datacentre and network operations.
The DPS intends to decide on new "next-generation" datacentre gear to overhaul the Parliamentary Computing Network, replacing its current Cisco 6509 ethernet switches.
Providing research services, computing facilities, library services and telecommunications, the Parliamentary Computing Network and the DPS form the backbone of parliamentary IT.
Tenders for the contract close 31 January 2011.