The Department of Human Services marked the final stages of its giant data centre consolidation today by announcing a move into Canberra Data Centres' newest facility.
DHS will become anchor tenant to the new Fyshwick facility. The data centre will be one of two inhabited by the agency following a four-year campaign to rationalise its compute sites down from seven.
Human Services Minister Marise Payne told iTnews in an emailled statement that a number of services have already been switched on inside the Fyshwick site, with more to transition over in the coming months.
They are are being moved into the new facility from an existing DHS site in Tuggeragong, with other services also moving over from the DHS's Hume site.
“For security reasons, we are unable to provide information on whether the facility will act as a primary or disaster recovery facility, however it will give the department the ability to ensure constant data availability," she said.
The rationalisation drive was kicked off by former CIO John Wadeson in 2011 and is expected to save DHS $24.5 million in leasing costs over the next ten years.
The department moved into its first facility, another CDC data centre in the Canberra suburb of Hume, in 2012.
It signed a ten-year lease at the site, a move anticipated to save the department $5 million a year in electricity costs thanks to the modern energy-saving features of the Hume facility, which features hot aisle containment and free air cooling technologies.
But one of the primary motivating factors for the move was an uptime rating of 99.982 percent.
The Fyshwick facility also boasts modern energy saving features and an uptime rating of 99.995 percent.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the facility would also open its doors to other federal government clients.
“The building is nearly entirely self-sufficient with its water requirements thanks to a clever water retention system, and an LED lighting system ensures power isn’t used unnecessarily,” he said.
Payne said the facility could potentially house the $1 billion systems being built to replace the 30 year-old Centrelink welfare payments engine.
“This is a secure, efficient, 21st century data centre that will work hand-in-hand with the welfare payment system we will be implementing over the coming years,” she said in a statement.
The program, shortened to WPIT (welfare payments infrastructure transformation) by the Government, received $169 million in start up funding in the May budget to be offset by $109 million worth of savings over the forward estimates.
