The next steps for Tasmanian Government data centres and managed services
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The Tasmanian Government ICT Strategy has five objectives covering improved productivity, improved service delivery, better access to information, leadership and investment, and a common approach to commodity ICT services. One of the major actions to support the ICT Strategy is to implement a common approach to data centre/storage. The ICT Policy Board is responsible for the oversight of the ICT Strategy. As part of this role, the ICT Policy Board has examined the issue of data centres and managed services and determined that the priorities of this work are:
During 2013 a strategic review and business case was developed to examine options for how government manages and sources data centre and related IT infrastructure services. The scope of the review and recommendations includes all ICT server and storage equipment and related ICT services, except small server installations and network equipment providing services to users at local sites and higher-layer ‘cloud’ services, such as software as a service (SaaS). Current arrangementsAgencies currently use over 22 separate data centre and computer room facilities. 17 of these are agency owned and operated facilities, most often collocated in leased office accommodation. The remainder are in third party facilities, including facilities operated by TMD, Telstra, Aurora Energy and TasmaNet. The services provided by Telstra, Aurora Energy and TasmaNet are provided through whole-of-government agreements managed by TMD. TMD operate and manage one facility, which is scheduled to be decommissioned in mid-2016. A whole-of-government Infrastructure as a Service contract is managed by TMD and operated by Anittel. Services include the provisioning of a virtual data centre for the creation and management of compute and storage (ie infrastructure as a service or IaaS) and other services such as backup and business continuity. This agreement commenced in September 2013. The majority of the ICT infrastructure and services housed within the data centres are managed directly by agencies. Agencies also utilise a number of third parties to manage specified services or infrastructure. The strategic review and business case found that the current arrangements, as outlined above, have evolved in a piecemeal manner and present a number of challenges to the delivery of reliable government services, both today and into the future. It concluded that the current approach is less viable and unable to sustain the requirements of government into the future. Future arrangementsThe ICT Policy Board considered the review and endorsed on 11 December 2013 the establishment of a panel of service providers and the phasing out of in-house data centre facilities, including:
Implementation Steps
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