The Department of Defence has selected US-based IP services provider, Verizon, for a $50 million five-year internet gateway contract to improve secure internet services to its 110,000 employees, as well as agencies and the public.
The contract was first penned in April following the department’s decision to upgrade its communications offerings.
Under the agreement, Verizon will provide managed services for the secure internet connection with each gateway housed in separate data centres located in countries such as the United States, Sweden and Singapore.
Defence chief information officer, Greg Farr, said the Chief Information Officer Group (CIOG) manages one of the largest information and communications technology networks in Australia, which includes [[artnid:392722|fixed and mobile ICT networks of over 6000 servers, eight satellite constellations, three primary domains, multiple data centres, over 100,000 workstations and around 3000 applications|new].
“It is our job to ensure that this network offers a dependable, secure and integrated information environment to support defence military and business operations, so it was imperative that we provide simple and secure access to information for our internal and external stakeholders," Farr said in a statement.
The contract comes ahead of plans to reduce the number of internet gateways used by Defence and eight over government agencies under a program coordinated by the Australia Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).
The program is looking at options to minimise the number of Australian government internet gateways to improve efficiency and security.
Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU