NSW Health plots data centre migration

NSW Health has contracted systems integrator Dimension Data to help it move into one of two new data centres being built by Metronode specifically for the NSW Government.

Under a two-month, $329,419 contract that commenced this week, Dimension Data will develop a data centre migration strategy for NSW Health.

DiData declined to provide specifics of the strategy but said it was looking at how NSW Health might transition to a managed cloud environment. 

“We are defining that roadmap of transition,” DiData NSW branch manager Pete Murray told CRN.

“Our contract will stipulate the method of and timeframe behind the movement and consolidation of storage space into the new data centres.“

The DiData contract does not include a delivery component but Murray said he hoped DiData would be involved in the implementation phase.

He said DiData would recommend NSW Health move to virtualised infrastructure while the Metronode facilities were being constructed.

Metronode's Silverwater data centre is expected to be built by mid-2013. The Unanderra facility is expected to be built by the end of next year.

“We’re excited about the project," Murray said. "It’ll set a blueprint that other departments will be able to have a look at and scrutinise.

"There’s only a couple of departments that are the size of the Health Department, and we’ve done large migrations before, like all of Woolworths, but that pales in comparison to Health.”

The State Government has sought to consolidate its data centres into two custom-built facilities since 2009 and inked a landmark contract with Leighton Holdings subsidiary Metronode in May.

The data centre reform project will see the Government consolidate 130 server rooms across the state into two facilities at Silverwater in Sydney and Unanderra, near Wollongong, by the end of next year.

NSW Health, along with the Department of Education and Communities and the Department of Finance and Services and Corrections NSW, will be the first agencies to transition into the facility, due to their high IT usage.

Finance will direct other agencies to the new facilities over the next four years. NSW Government has access to up to 4.5 megawatts of capacity at both facilities for up to 20 years.