Dell added to whole-of-government data centre panel

The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has added Dell to the whole-of-government Data Centre Facilities Panel, after a period of two months without any new additions. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance and Deregulation, of which AGIMO is part, said that it is likely that even more additions will follow.

“There may be one or two more sites added to the Panel. These sites are in the final stages of negotiation,” she said.

According to Intermedium’s Federal Government contracts database, Dell has not previously signed any contracts with the Federal Government for the provision of data centre services.

However the successful bid aligns with the company’s plans to build its first Australian data centre in the near future, as Chief Executive Michael Dell told The Australian in March this year.  He said the Australian data centre would be part of a global strategy to meet growing demand for cloud-based services.

At present however, the company has local partners in Australia which offer data centre services to its customers.

Dell is one of the data centre panellists also authorised as a ‘greenfields’ supplier as part of the Data Centres Under Development component of the Facilities Panel. It is the seventh member of the Data Centre Facilities Panel to be authorised for greenfields provision by AGIMO.

Dell is the 14^th supplier to be added to the Data Centre Facilities Panel, which is a core feature of the Australian Government’s data centre strategy. Launched in 2010, the strategy aims to save the government $1 billion by 2015, by reducing the number of data centres being used by Federal agencies.

Under the scheme, all FMA Act agencies will be required to transition to a data centre run by one of these 14 suppliers as soon as their current arrangements expire.

Dell is only the second supplier to have been appointed to both the Data Centre Facilities Panel and the Data Centre Migration Panel. Fujitsu is the other, having been appointed to the migration panel in May this year and the Facilities panel in August.

In 2009-10, Dell signed a total of $72 million worth of ICT contracts with Federal Government agencies. Included in this total is a $17 million contract with the Attorney-General’s Department for the provision of computer equipment.

In 2010-11 Dell signed another $42.7 million worth of contracts with the Federal Government. According to Intermedium’s Scout IT tool, $12.8 million of this has been identified as coming through the Whole-of-Government Desktop Hardware Panel since its establishment in August 2010. The true total of Dell’s business through the panel, however, it is likely to be higher than this owing to those contracts published without the applicable SON ID.

The following 14 vendors currently sit on the data centre facilities panel:

1. Enterprise Data Centre
2. Equinix
3. Australian Data Centres
4. Canberra Data Centres
5. Datacom Systems
6. Global Switch
7. iSeek
8. TransACT
9. NEC
10. 10. Macquarie Telecom
11. 11. Fujitsu
12. 12. Metronode
13. 13. Primus
14. 14. Dell

Related Articles:

AGIMO establishes Greenfields Data Centre panel

Three new vendors added to whole of government data centre panels

DHS on track to trim down data centre numbers