Defence Business: The DIE is cast | ADM March 2012
John Hilvert | Canberra
The $347 million Head Agreement covers both hardware and software and puts in place core requirements of the Defence IT Environment (DIE) through to September 2016.
The five-year IBM Head Agreement for Hardware and Software supports major Defence Systems including Personnel, Finance and Military Logistics systems and Defence Information Communications Technology Reform Initiatives, including Service Oriented Architecture, Single Secure Desktop and Data Centre Migration and Consolidation.
The Services Oriented Architecture provides “reusable, granular, modular and interoperable services” across the Defence infrastructure, to allow cost-saving centralised support services.
The Single Secure Desktop project will support personnel that had to use multiple PCs to access multiple security classification levels. Defence anticipates rolling out multi-level information-sharing across these security domains.
The Data Centre Migration and Centralised Processing projects, will see Defence consolidate its fleet of more than 200 data centre facilities down to less than 10.
Defence has a long term relationship with IBM. In 2008, Defence renewed its Enterprise Licence Agreement with IBM at a value of $269 million over five years.
But Defence has struggled to achieve timely and cutting edge ICT solutions due, in part, to procurement and approval processes that lagged technological advances. This is where its Applications Managed Services Partnership Arrangement (AMSPA) comes in.
IBM is also one of five “Preferred Industry Partners” (PIPs) or suppliers appointed to Defence’s Applications Managed Services Partnership Agreement (AMSPA), for all its major systems integration work undertaken at the Department.
The five selected PIPs are:
- Accenture Australia Holdings Limited;
- BAE Systems Australia;
- CSC Australia Pty Ltd;
- IBM Australia Limited; and
- Hewlett Packard Australia Pty Ltd.
As demand for ICT services continues to grow, Defence hopes these partnerships will enable services to be rapidly sourced within a commercial framework that ensures value for money and reduces risks to the Commonwealth. As the PIPs’ gain insight into Defence business, the hope is they take on a more strategic role in project development, suggesting innovative solutions and helping to inform management decisions.
The goal is for DIE to become one network connecting fixed and deployed locations built on a single set of standards and products. It will encompass all security levels and will determine that the right person has the right authority to access information.
A typical desktop set up available to all Defence sites will be a single screen connected to a network that can display multiple security sessions. Secure voice and video will be available to the desktop in most fixed and deployed locations. Wireless networks will also be considered in appropriate locations. Deployed commanders and decision makers will have a single view of the battle space through a Common Operating Picture accessing a wide range of data from sensors and sources.
Finance, payroll and personnel information will be easily accessed, manipulated and aggregated by authorised Defence staff. New capabilities such as the automation of procurement, personnel and pay administration, vetting, recruitment, estate management and performance reporting will be progressively introduced.
However the execution of the revamp prompted questions over slippages and whether Defence should have tested the market before committing to IBM. Freedom Of Information (FOI) documents revealed Defence opted for IBM, because it felt the change in architecture represented too much risk.
It was among the largest IT deals the Federal Government signed in 2011, and exempted from certain Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines (CPGs).
The agency’s FOI response noted that procurement staff relied on CPG exemption s.8.33e where “a change of supplier would compel the agency to procure property or services that do not meet requirements of compatibility with existing equipment or services”.
“Defence currently has a significant investment in its IBM products and services platform,” a Defence spokesperson said.
Shifting off this platform would “represent a significant cost and risk premium over the continuation of its sustainment,” the spokesperson said, with ‘sustainment’ referring to the “provision of support for [the Department’s] existing capability”.
“IBM does not mandate a direct source,” the spokesperson added, but did indicate that the vendor nonetheless has a stranglehold on the agency’s systems.
“As this is an extension to an existing agreement and relates to the provision of support for existing capability, IBM is the only entity that can agree to changes to IBM’s terms and conditions of supply and use [for software, hardware and related services],” the spokesperson said.
The FOI response also indicated that Defence last tested the market for its IT infrastructure 13 years ago in a 1999 review of the Defence Computing Bureau.
“Until such time as that is revisited, the requirement to sustain our existing IBM infrastructure will remain,” the FOI response noted.
A spokesperson for Defence said the extension was negotiated on “more favourable terms and conditions for the supply and use of IBM software, hardware and related services” than the existing contract.
The DIE roll out could also be affected by slippages in the migration of its primary data centre to Sydney's Global Switch. A Defence spokesman confirmed the deadline for migration into Global Switch slipped from March to November this year. A key part of its 2009 Strategic Reform Program, the move to consolidate data centres and its IT environment aims to deliver $1.9 billion in savings over the next decade.
The ambitious data centre consolidation aims to reduce Defence’s 200 plus data centres to less than ten, including the new Global Switch facility and others managed by Defence personnel supported by Unisys and Fujitsu.
Defence’s existing primary facility is hosted in the Telstra building in the Canberra suburb of Deakin. It has been deemed unfit for purpose, having reached power and cooling capacity in 2010.
“The migration was delayed to allow more time for planning and the migration of key business applications into the Sydney Centre,” the Defence spokesman said. “This would minimise the impact to Defence business.”