A new data centre has been opened in Fyshwick, Canberra, which will be shared by federal government agencies including the Department of Human Services (DHS).
The opening of the new data centre marks the near completion of the department's data centre consolidation program. It has consolidated seven data centres down to two facilities.
At the beginning of 2012, the department’s data holdings were spread out across seven data centres located in Bruce, Hume, Tuggeranong, Canberra, Deakin, Brisbane and Sydney.
According to Minister for Human Services Marise Payne the consolidation will save taxpayers $24.5 million in leasing costs over the next decade.
The Fyshwick data centre has been billed as almost self-sufficient with its water requirements because of a water retention system. A LED lighting system will help conserve energy.
Payne said the data centre will be an important addition to the work under way to upgrade the welfare payment IT infrastructure.
In April, the federal government confirmed that it will replace Centrelink's welfare payments system, which dates back to 1983, with a new platform at a cost of $1 billion.
Minister for Social Services Scott Morrison said the new system will allow the government to properly address the challenges facing Australia’s welfare system and reduce the costs of administering the system for taxpayers.
"This 30-year-old system consisting of 30 million lines of code and undertaking more than 50 million daily transactions is responsible for delivering around $100 billion in payments to 7.3 million people every year,” Morrison said at the time.
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