Whole-of-govt datacentre panel outed

Special Minister of State Gary Gray today announced the vendors to sit on the Federal Government's datacentre provision panel in the next step towards fulfilling the government's datacentre strategy.

This panel, which will be in place for the next five years, will provide datacentre services to all of the Australian government agencies. Agencies buying from the panel will enter into 10-year leases for datacentre space, with the option to extend the lease for five years.

It's compulsory for federal agencies to use the panel, but state government agencies are also entitled to use it if they wish, according to Gray's release. Agencies will migrate to using facilities from companies on the panel when their existing arrangements expire, if they need additional space or power or if their outsourcing agreements change.

The companies who made the cut include:

• Canberra Data Centre
• Datacom Systems
• Global Switch Property
• iSeek
• TransACT Capital Communications

The companies are based around the nation.

Some additional companies might be added onto the panel "in the near future", according to the announcement.

The Gershon review into federal IT told the government to develop a datacentre strategy for its future needs to try to avoid $1 billion in costs resulting from ad hoc investments over 15 years.

Gray said the formation of the panel was a major milestone in the implementation of the Australian Government's Gershon answering strategy for the period from 2010 to 2025.

"The next important step in this process will be the establishment of a panel of providers of migration services," Gray said. "Agencies will be able to select providers from this panel to assist them to move from existing datacentres to new datacentres. This panel will be ready shortly."

He also flagged that the government intended to add to the panel providers of future datacentres which are still being constructed or are in planning.