Tassie goes virtually green with $1.2m VMware deal

The Tasmanian government has settled on VMware Infrastructure 3 as its official virtualisation suite, committing to a three-year, AU$1.2 million contract in the hopes of going green and keeping cash in its pockets.

The government hopes to consolidate its servers across agencies and local councils at a ratio of four to one, slashing its carbon footprint and hardware operation costs.

The amount of carbon the southern state hopes to save is uncertain at this point, according to Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet business development manager Ian Scott, who says such calculations are still to come.

The speed of the roll-out is also undetermined. "While there's a whole government contract, agencies are going to be responsible for rolling it out," Scott said, although he added that they have been champing at the bit while the tender process was progressing, producing a "pent up demand" which would likely see swift implementation in many agencies.

"Greenness is very much on people's mind down here today," he said.

VMware was chosen through a tender process, where it stood out on price and support, something more important to agencies on the apple isle than those on the mainland, according to Scott: "The agencies down here are acutely aware that it's difficult to get support."

Normally, the Tasmanian government agencies go for gold support, Scott said — technical help in business hours. However, VMware offered platinum support via its partner Alphawest on this contract, which is 24/7.

The contract also gives the government a 23 to 25 per cent discount off the retail price of the software as well as US$90,000 in training credits.

"Overall, the contract was a pretty good deal for the agencies," Scott said.