The Victorian government’s central IT support agency CenITex will shift to an end-to-end VMware hybrid cloud environment before the year is out.
The core IT overhaul, dubbed Project Fortify, will see the agency adopt software defined services and a cloud-based desktop environment to “improve the resilience, reliability and security”.
It has been described by CenITex as its most ambitious technology refresh since the agency’s inception in 2008, and is considered necessary to improve how the more than 21 government agencies consume services.
The project, which began during last financial year, was brought forward after a number of serious service outages were experience during last financial years, according to CenITex’s latest annual report.
CenITex’s current legacy infrastructure includes centralised data centres, on-site storage and limited remote capability for remote access.
But the shift is also intended to enhance the customer experience of over 35,000 public servants through a new digital workplace services that will provide “fast reliable access to information, applications and cloud services for anywhere”.
Outgoing CEO Michael Vanderheide said the VMware platform would allow the agency to meet increasing demand and the changing needs of customers by “provid[ing] mission-critical services more efficiently”.
“Our customers want us to be responsive, resilient and cost effective to meet their changing needs,” he said revealing details of the CenITex and VMware tie-up on Tuesday.
“They expect technological innovation that will provide them with reliable, accessible services well into the future.”
VMWare said the software-defined data centre (SDDC) component of the project, which was the initial focus of Project Fortify, will use vSphere and vSAN storage.
CenITex will also use VMware Cloud on AWS and VMware vCloud Suite to reduce its physical data centre footprint and improve scalability.
VMware said this would allow the agency to offer its government customers a cloud-based disaster recovery capability for critical applications.
CenITex’s new digital workplace services will be built using VMware’s Workpace ONE, while Horizon will allow virtual or remote desktops and apps to be delivered through a single VDI.
This is expected to allow CenITex to "easily see device health and location, encrypt and restrict access to data, and product sensitive information without compromosing performance".
“The sophistication customers expect from today’s technology services is continually increasing, which can easily lead to complex IT environments,” VMware's A/NZ vice president and managing director Alister Dias said.
“Cenitex’s unique role in government means it’s critical to provide a flexible, secure service which can keep up with the pace of change.”
The project is expected to be complete before the end of this year, with the digital workplace component to go live in July.
