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Tassie govt airs plans for new datacentre

The Tasmanian State Government has gone to market for a new datacentre facility in tandem with its shared services provider, TDM.
Written by Luke Hopewell, Contributor

The Tasmanian State Government has gone to market for a new datacentre facility in tandem with its shared services provider, TDM.

The new datacentre facility is set to house departmental computer, storage and communications equipment.

The Tasmanian Government is after a tier-three rated site at the minimum, meaning that it requires the facility to be up and running 99.982 per cent of the time. The government and TDM intend to contract with a single supplier for the new datacentre, rather than engage a panel like other states.

According to the tender documents, the government intends to construct a green facility, hoping to recycle water used in cooling operations and function on renewable energy.

"It is desirable that the datacentre site minimises the use of water and power. The Tasmanian Government is committed to improving the sustainability of its ICT operations and encourages 'Green IT' and other environmental initiatives where possible," it said in tender documentation.

The government also wants the datacentre environment to be secured by biometric security measures as opposed to a paper-based sign-in sheet, and constantly monitored with CCTV facilities.

TMD, a division of Tasmania's Department of Premier and Cabinet, provides a range of IT services to various government departments and already has two datacentres situated in and around Hobart. At the completion of the new facility, the Tasmanian government is looking to discontinue its use of the secondary failover facility in Salamanca Square outside of the CBD.

A supplier briefing is set to be held on 18 January 2011, with the tender closing on 21 February 2011. The government expects to sign contracts with a preferred tenderer by May 2011 and have the centre construction completed within a year of the signing date.

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