Victorian government on the hunt for a datacentre provider
The Victorian government has published an expression of interest (EOI) to find a Melbourne-based datacentre provider on behalf of the Victorian WorkCover Authority (WorkSafe) and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC).
Currently, WorkSafe and the TAC operate two datacentres: one in Doncaster and the other in Melbourne, with the Melbourne site requiring relocation as WorkSafe moves through its office relocation program.
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The EOI forms the first part of a two-stage tender process, with the second stage giving shortlisted vendors the option of relocating the Melbourne datacentre at a later stage "should it prove cost effective to do so".
The government confirmed the build of the new datacentre and the relocation of the current Melbourne datacentre infrastructure will be a separate statement of work
The EOI asks respondents to immediately be capable of accommodating approximately 15 racks comprising of current WorkSafe physical servers and networking equipment. It also asks that the successful vendor be able to increase or decrease rack space allocation if required.
Included in the criteria is the request for a structured and secure process for allowing telecommunications carriers access to equipment. The EOI also asks the vendor's facility support both Telstra and Optus infrastructure.
Although not mandatory, the EOI has asked for datacentre facilities with options for private, public, and hybrid cloud solutions to "establish direct and secure interconnections for accessing cloud resources, business partners, service providers, and networks".
When it comes to the potential second datacentre, WorkSafe and the TAC have requested the distance between the two datacentres not exceed 40 kilometres to "support optimal application performance provided over the dark fibre services".
WorkSafe administers Victoria's workers compensation scheme and is the state's regulator on workplace health and safety, while the TAC is the state's statutory authority responsible for managing a transport accident compensation scheme that pays benefits to those injured in transport accidents. Both entities share an IT Shared Solutions (ITSS) division.
The EOI closes on September 2, 2016, with shortlisted respondents expected to be notified by the end of September.
It is anticipated that WorkSafe and TAC will be looking to begin occupying the datacentre in Q3-Q4 of this financial year, with any move of the second datacentre yet to be determined.