ATO flags imminent midrange, hyperconverged outsourcing tenders

The Australian Taxation Office will soon go to tender for midrange and data centre services, as well as separate hyperconverged infrastructure services, under a continuation of its IT strategic sourcing program.

The program was described by CIO Ramez Katf in 2021 as being “all about modernising [the ATO’s] IT outsourcing portfolio by developing market-aligned and more flexible bundles”.

The program’s initial timeline was for “a progressive approach to market in 2022 and then contract execution, transition and service transformation in 2023”.

It largely hasn’t deviated from that; iTnews reported earlier this year that midrange and hyperconverged infrastructure tenders would be issued under a “third wave” anticipated for July or August.

The ATO has now issued advance notices for these tenders, saying the actual tenders will be released mid-to-late this month.

Like previous approaches, it will offer midrange and data centre services either “as a whole”, or with some components separately contracted out.

Midrange platform services cover “physical and virtualised platforms for spplication workload hosting … up to and including the hypervisor, and including all aspects of lifecycle management,” the ATO said.

Also covered is data storage for the ATO’s end user, midrange and mainframe platforms, it said.

Hyperconverged infrastructure will be dealt with separately, the ATO said, noting it acts as a “discrete and self-contained ‘as-a-service’ platform that provides the ATO with on-demand access to compute, storage and connectivity for both midrange platform and end user services.”

The ATO noted that while it has a cloud-first policy that is also reducing its reliance on physical and virtual midrange services, not every workload was suitable for cloud hosting.

“There remains a continued need for on-premises solutions long term,” the office said.

“The ATO is seeking platforms that provide the best technical capability aligned to the way our application teams need to work with flexible commercial arrangements that provide the best value for money.”

The tax office also indicated it is open to non-hyperconverged “alternatives as part of the process.