Aussie spy agency prepares for ICT upgrade

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service has set the wheels in motion for its mammoth ICT upgrade program.

The agency yesterday through the government's AusTender portal issued an invitation for businesses to participate in a request for information (RFI) process.

The federal budget allocated $295.8 million over six years to strengthen ASIS's capabilities including upgrading its ICT systems.

The budget measure included $172.5 million for capital expenses and operational funding of $123.4 million over the period.

"In addition, from 2021-22, the Government will provide ongoing funding of $47.1 million per year," budget documents stated.

The Commonwealth is seeking "a range of Goods and Services to support replacement of Core ICT Infrastructure, relating to ICT infrastructure and applications technology products and to systems engineering and integration services," state documents released yesterday as part of the initial 'conditions of participation' for the RFI.

"In addition, the [Commonwealth] seeks access to innovation and an implementation approach based on collaborative contracting."

The major IT infrastructure program is likely to include the deployment of an on-premise private cloud.

The program will span server and storage infrastructure, networks, identity and access management, email and calendaring, workstations, mobility solutions, VoIP and videoconferencing.

It will also involve replacing bespoke applications, the RFI documents state.

On the software side, ASIS is interested in improved applications in a number of areas, including enterprise content management, tools to analyse 'big data', case and workflow management ("including business process modelling, case collaboration and business activity monitoring ... capabilities"), content capture, and document drafting and collaboration.

ASIS is also seeking system integration services as part of the program.