NBN Co lets slip on IT vendor favourites

Oracle, VMware, Microsoft and NetApp could play a role in NBN Co's core IT infrastructure after being named among the skills required by the infrastructure's soon-to-be-appointed "owner".

The next-generation network company continued its aggressive recruitment drive over the weekend with the creation of a "subject matter expert role" for data centre services.

It said the successful applicant will be "working with core technologies proposed, including, Solaris, Solaris Virtualisation and Clustering, VMWare 4.0, Windows Server and Workstation, VDI, NetApp Storage, Service Management Tools."

NBN Co denied suggestions that the position description exposed the list of vendors it had decided to work with. A spokesman for the Government-funded company said the list did "not represent a short list of vendors" it had decided to use.

"These are just indicative skills required of the people we are seeking and do not represent a short list of vendors," the spokesman said.

"We've just put some indicative technologies on there as a starting point. It's like advertising for a media relations person and saying, 'Must be able to use Microsoft Word'."

The network builder had previously asked network equipment vendors, satellite network and services providers, and business and operational support systems and services providers to submit capability requests to provide kit and services to the respective parts of the network.