Real estate group replaces CIO

The company behind realestate.com.au has appointed former Lonely Planet IT manager Nigel Dalton to head technology at the organisation.

Dalton, a former New Zealand Government worker and most recently an IT consultant, will replace current CIO Daniel Oertli, who will leave next week after three years at the real estate site.

"Nigel's passion for technology and experience in building online businesses will be invaluable as we continue to innovate and grow our businesses in Australia and overseas," REA Group chief executive Greg Ellis said in a statement.

The company operates one of the most high traffic Australian web sites, along with ventures in Italy, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

It has indicated moves toward a hybrid cloud model, tying up existing facilities in Sydney and Amsterdam with Amazon Web Services' EC2 for development and production environments.