• Department Finance and Deregulation

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22 March 2010The Australian Government has endorsed the Data Centre Strategy as the whole-of-government approach to future data centre requirements.  It contains initiatives and actions to achieve the recommendations of the ICT Review. For example, longer term leasing will provide surety for the data centre industry. 

It also takes account of technology and market factors that affect how agencies use data centres. It has been informed by consultations with industry.

Federal Government agencies operating under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (FMA) spend an estimated $4.3 billion per annum on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).  Of that, around $850 million per annum is on data centres. FMA agencies use about 30,000 square metres of data centre space.

For the purposes of this Strategy, government data centre sites are defined as purpose built, permanent, shared enterprise facilities that can house the full range of ICT equipment currently used or that will be used by agencies.  The Strategy is applicable to any space that provides electricity, cooling, fire suppression and/or security to data centre ICT such as servers, networks and data storage.

The Review of the Australian Government’s use of Information and Communication Technology, (the ICT Review) undertaken by Sir Peter Gershon recommended that the government develop a whole-of-government approach for future data centre requirements over the next 10 to 15 years in order to avoid a series of ad hoc investments
which will, in total, cost significantly more than a coordinated approach.  Sir Peter estimated that costs of $1 billion could be avoided by developing a data centre strategy for the next 15 years.

This Strategy is the proposed whole-of-government approach to future data centre requirements. It contains initiatives and actions to achieve the recommendations of the Review including the avoidance of $1 billion in costs.