HPE called out over service “failure” after ATO systems outage

The gloves are off over the Australian Taxation Office’s ongoing IT woes, with Commissioner of Taxation, Chris Jordan, suggesting that the agency’s technology partner, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has “failed” to reliably provide it with its contracted services.

“Initial indications are there has been a failure by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to provide contracted services in a reliable way and ensure stability of our systems,” Jordan said in a statement published on 8 February.

The comments come after suggestions by the media that tax time 2017, beginning on 1 July, could be under threat due to ongoing technical issues arising from systems outages caused by the “unprecedented” failure of storage hardware that had been upgraded in November 2015 by HPE.

Since the initial outage, which struck on 12 December, 2016, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has intermittently taken services offline as it worked with HPE to replace the failed hardware and restore systems to full capacity.

A Fairfax media report published on 8 February suggested that the ATO could not “guarantee it will begin tax time on 1 July” as it continues work to restore affected infrastructure and systems.

However, Jordan has rejected the claims, saying that the suggestions are “completely without foundation”.

“It is disappointing that some people are trying to create unnecessary mischief during what has already been a challenging and testing time for the community and the ATO,” Jordan said.

“This is very unfortunate as it undermines the commitment and good work that our people have undertaken to return ATO services to normal operation and bring them back online as quickly and reliably as possible,” he said.

Certainly, ATO and HPE technicians have been putting in some long hours to rectify the fallout of the hardware failure and the resulting systems issues, with teams from both organisations working throughout the Christmas period, during weekends, and even through the night.

The agency revealed on 4 February that it had commissioned a new Storage Area Network (SAN) to “provide better services in the future,” saying that the fresh hardware had arrived at ATO premises.

The arrival was followed by weekend-long marathon effort working with HPE engineers to replace the failed hardware and restore systems.

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“Our ATO technicians are working with HPE’s global team of experts to fully replace the affected hardware. This ongoing work will ensure we can meet the deliverables for the government’s legislative agenda and our priority services that support the community’s engagement with the tax and super systems,” Jordan said on 8 February.

Although the agency has had all hands on deck trying to remediate the ongoing technical issues, it has found time to call in professional services giant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), to investigate the cause of the initial hardware failure and the resulting outage.

HPE, for its part, confirmed in late December that it had launched its own internal investigation into the cause of the hardware failure.

“The cause of the failures will be informed by the review led by PwC that I commissioned after the first outage in December 2016,” Jordan said.

“As I said at that time, I want to know what happened in forensic detail so that we can assure the community they will not face this kind of disruption in their dealings with us; that businesses who rely on our services can go about running their business without interruption.

“I can assure the community that we are taking this seriously and it has the highest priority. I have already met a number of times with the most senior HPE representatives in the region and corresponded with their CEO to ensure they are aware of the disruption and damage this kind of event causes and remind them of their contractual arrangements,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jordan has reiterated that the agency’s immediate priority is to provide stable services to the community, businesses, key stakeholders, and the government.

“We are committed to offering contemporary and reliable services to the community. The development and release of many new service offerings under our Reinvention program have not contributed to these system outages. Initial indications are that the outages have been caused by faulty hardware.

“I commit to you we will get to the bottom of this, fix it for the longer term and maintain contemporary and reliable services to the community,” he said.