Seventeen data centre operators have thrown their hats into the ring to help the NSW government consolidate 130 facilities down to two.
The organisations, which include some of the country's most high-profile operators, resonded to a request for Expressions of Interest process opened up in October last year.
The state government is looking for providers to assist with the "design, construction, commissioning, financing and provision" of service over a 20-year period for what is being called the Data Centre Reform project.
The objectives of the project include reducing the cost of the state's data centre needs and minimising the environmental impact.
A request for tender is expected to be opened prior to the end of March with facilities fully operational in 2011.
The list of 17 organisations:
- Australian Centre For Advanced Computing And Communication
- Canberra Data Centres
- CSC
- Datacom Systems
- Enterprise Data Corporation
- Equinix Australia
- Fujitsu Australia
- Global Switch Property
- Gresham Rabo Management Limited
- Leighton Contractors
- Macquarie Capital Group Limited
- Macquarie Telecom
- Oracle Corporation Australia
- Sun Microsystems Australia
- The Trustee for the Plenary Group Unit Trust
- Tier 5
- Verb IT
The NSW move mirrors that of the Federal Government, which in September chose five data centre providers to service Federal Government agencies while they develop whole-of-government strategies as part of the Gershon Review.
The five were Polaris Data Centres, Canberra Data Centres, Fujitsu, Global Switch Property and Harbour MSP. The whole-of-government strategy is yet to be released.