[LINK] AGIMO details Federal Government data centre needs

Tom Worthington Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au
Wed Jun 30 15:26:16 AEST 2010


Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> This is a good start, but the real savings come at the demand and 
> sharing levels and can only be realised when agencies get together ...

Larger agencies can get economies of scale by consolidating their
equipment internally. Even relocating the existing equipment to fewer
data centres will be an improvement. But, yes, larger savings require
consolidation of applications and equipment between smaller agencies.

The "Data Centre Facilities Statement of Requirements – Draft" was
released by AGIMO (25 June 2010):
<http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/data-centre-facilities-statement-of-requirements-draft>.

Unfortunately the draft includes no requirements for sustainable (Green)
IT performance. The only firm requirement included is certification to
the Environmental Management Systems (EMS) ISO14001 standard, or
equivalent: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_14000>

There are no mandatory requirements for energy saving, materials
recycling in the data centre statement of requirements. This is despite
requirements placed on government agencies to do so. As an example,
modern data centres report the energy used by client equipment, so this
can be included in mandatory government energy and greenhouse gas
reporting. The draft AGIMO document includes no requirement for such
reporting, so that agencies would be unable to comply with reporting
requirements.

A "Whole-of-Government ICT Sustainability Plan" was to be developed by
the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA)
in conjunction with the Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance)
by December 2009, however, the plan has not yet been released:
<http://www.environment.gov.au/sustainability/government/ictplan/pubs/ict-discussion-paper.pdf>.

In the interim, suitable standards and applicable laws are detailed in
my book "Green Technology Strategies: Using computers and
telecommunications to reduce carbon emissions"
<http://www.tomw.net.au/green/>. Several students undertaking my courses
in Green IT have written green ICT reports for their agencies as course
assignments <http://www.tomw.net.au/green/#courses>.

A Request for Tender (RFT) is planned to be issued for a panel of
suppliers for the bulk of data centre facilities to the Australian
Government agencies. However, as the ICT sustainability plan is now six
months late, it is not clear when the RFT may be issued.

There are several interesting aspects to the draft document: apart from
the large scale of the services required, the way the draft was released
is of interest.

The draft requirements was announced online by Kayelle Wiltshire,
Assistant Secretary of the Central Facilities Branch,AGIMO, in what is
essentially a first person blog, without the usual third person, hard to
understand official bureaucratic language. Comments are invited to the
blog: <http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/2010/06/25/consultation-draft-rft-dcf/>.

AGIMO are acknowledging and referencing a previous Australian
Information Industry Association (AIIA) "Whole-of-Government Data Centre
Strategy: Industry Best Practice Principles" (AIIA, 29 May 2010). It is
unusual for an agency to acknowledge the input of an industry body so
directly:
<http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/whole-of-government-data-centres-strategy>.

What also makes the AGIMO data centre initiative different is the use of
HTML. Usually government reports are provided in large, hard to
download, hard to read PDF documents. In this case AGIMO have provided
web page versions of not only its own documents, but the AIIA report as
well (the documents are also offered in PDF and RTF formats). One
improvement AGIMO could make would be to list the HTML version first,
rather than last. May people are likely to click on the first link they
see and end up with a PDF file download they did not really want.

GREEN IT FOR AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DATA CENTRES

The AIIA report cited by AGIO includes a section on "Green IT':

---
"Government should be clear on its commitment to ‘Green’ technologies
and encourage innovation and commitment from industry in this area.
Climate factors of a location that enable efficiency should be included
in the consideration".
---

The AIIA report cites:

    1. "Data Centre Certification Ramps Up", Bianca Wirth,
GreenITStrategy.com, 6 April 2010
<http://www.greenitstrategy.com/data-centre/219-nabers-for-data-centres>.
    2. Data Centre Design Guide, Presentation by Jon Haas and Tony
Pierce, The Green Grid, 4 February 2009
<http://www.thegreengrid.org/en/Global/Content/TechnicalForumPresentation/Data%20Center%2020%20Design%20Guide>.

The draft statement of requirements includes a section on "Sustainability":

---
     8.28 The Australian Government encourages “Green IT” and other
environmental initiatives where possible, such as the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions, use of fossil fuel energy, use of water and
e-waste.

     8.29 The Tenderer should provide details of any Green Power (from
renewable sources) used in data centre facilities.

     8.30 The Tenderer should be certified to Environmental Management
Systems (EMS) ISO14001 or to an equivalent environmental management
standard, such as the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). If the
Tenderer is not certified, the Tenderer should commit to be certified
within 12 months of joining the panel of data centre Providers.

     8.31 The Tenderer should provide the current greenhouse gas
emission baseline for data centre facilities and plans, if any, for
upgrades to infrastructure to reduce the greenhouse gas footprint.

     8.32 It is desirable that the data centre operation minimises the
use of water and power. The Tenderer should detail how this can be
achieved. ..."
---

Green issues are also mentioned in the section on Un-interruptable Power
Supplies (UPS):

---
     "8.16 The Tenderer should provide evidence of green initiatives in
UPS design that demonstrates the use of non-chemical based UPS systems
and the reduction in the use of harmful chemicals in the UPS ..."
---


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au




-- 
  Tom Worthington FACS HLM
  PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
  http://www.tomw.net.au





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