The Department of Defence has penned a $52.9 million contract with Verizon Business to upgrade its internet gateway, ahead of plans to reduce whole-of-government gateway use.
Under the deal, the provider will replace Defence's existing single internet gateway with parallel managed services with five times the capacity.
The gateways will be housed in separate locations, though it is unclear whether they will be housed by Defence or Verizon Business. A Defence spokesperson was unable to clarify this issue.
According to a statement from the department, the upgraded gateways will improve internet service to both internal staff as well as other government agencies, industry partners and the general public.
The contract comes ahead of plans to reduce the number of internet gateways used by Defence and eight over government agencies under a program coordinated by the Australia Government Information Management Office. The program is looking at options to minimise the number of Australian Government internet gateways to improve efficiency and security.
The department recently signed a five-year, $56 million IT contract with CSC to develop and implement an electronic health information system for the Australian Defence Force. The system, dubbed as Joint eHealth Data and Information (JeHDI), will be one of the first comprehensive e-health records projects in Australia, according to CSC Australia president, Gavin Larkings.
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