Global Switch to be Defence's primary data centre

Sydney-based data centre to take over from Deakin facility by 2012

The Department of Defence has given the nod to Global Switch to become its data centre of choice for a consolidation program.

Defence will make Global Switch’s Sydney tier three data centre its primary facility for the next five years and in place of the Deakin site in Canberra, which has reached power and cooling capacity.

“Global Switch has been selected for providing the best value for money for the data centre facilities required by Defence for its future Primary Data Centre,” Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Dr Mike Kelly, said in a statement.

“The lease of the new Global Switch data centre facility in Sydney represents a significant milestone in ensuring that Defence has the capability to support its future ICT requirements with state-of-the-art data centre infrastructure.”

The Deakin data centre will continue to be used, however, until March 2012. The move is seen as part of the department’s efforts to improve its use and management of ICT.

The Defence of Department has attempted to form an overarching ICT policy several times over previous years. The Defence Management Review, commissioned in 2006 and issued in 2007, recommended Defence develop an enterprise-wide ICT strategy.

In 2009, Minister for Defence Senator John Faulkner announced the Defence Information and Communications Technology Strategy 2009, which outlined four strategic imperatives for the department to following in consolidating and mandating ICT reform.

These are optimising the value of ICT investment through greater communication and prioritisation, closer stakeholder engagement outside of the department's corporate network, developing a department-wide ICT Operating Model and Enterprise Architecture, and strengthening ICT capabilities through increased attempts to hire more IT professionals.

The strategy aimed to form "clear lines of accountability and transparent management responsibilities at the most senior levels, as well as investing in critically under-funded capabilities to improve its ICT infrastructure."

The ICT strategy is expected to require an investment of $940 million over four years, but will save the Department of Defence $1.9 billion over the next three to five years, and roughly $250 million every following year.

The ICT strategy is part of the wider Department of Defence's Strategic Reform Program, which will see a full reform of the department and a heavier military force by 2030. The overarching goals of the department were outlined in the Defence White Paper 2009.

In an audit report titled, 2008 Audit of the Defence Budget, the authors from McKinsey & Company, said deep reform is needed to provide "much greater transparency in the $22 million annual budget for Australia's Defence." Specifically on the use of ICT, the report says "Defence's ICT asset base is largely depreciated and in need of refresh. Hence, once a consolidated future state architecture has been defined, a significant portion of these savings will need to be reinvested in infrastructure replacement."

The auditors contended Defence must undergo a "comprehensive transformation of the ICT function".

"Where the scope of an ICT transformation is holistic, the opportunity for improvement is typically even greater – with the potential to improve technology efficiency as high as 40 per cent with a concurrent increase in quality (for example, a 25 per cent reduction in outages). Therefore, we suggest setting high aspirations for ICT efficiency savings, which can be used to offset the significant anticipated refresh costs."

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags data centresdepartment of defenceGlobal Switch

More about Department of DefenceetworkGlobal Switch

Show Comments
[]