Defence has completed its withdrawal from Global Switch Australia’s data centres a year ahead of its lease expiry, iTnews can confirm.
The department was forced to make an exit plan from the Sydney-based data centres in 2017 owing to national security concerns arising from the purchase of Global Switch’s parent company by a Chinese consortium.
The facilities recently returned to Australian ownership.
However, iTnews can reveal that by June 2024, Defence had relocated all remaining data and services out of Global Switch, a year ahead of its $60.4 million lease expiry.
iTnews understands the department’s hosting is now split between a facility owned by Canberra Data Centres (CDC), and Microsoft Azure and AWS.
“Defence has relocated all of its Global Switch Ultimo data holdings to an Australian-owned and operated data centre with a proven track record of hosting Defence and other government data,” a spokesperson said.
“This is consistent with the whole-of government hosting strategy.”
Defence was unable to confirm the data’s location. However, Defence signed a $92 million contract with CDC for 10 years in 2022.
At the same time, it signed a $109 million contract for Microsoft Azure services “as well as Microsoft enterprise subscriptions” over three years. This replaced a $86.5 million deal that ran from late September 2019 to the end of June 2022.
Meanwhile, last year, Defence signed a landmark agreement with AWS for the top-secret ‘TS Cloud’, which will cost at least $2 billion over the next decade.
Migration difficulties
Global Switch owns two high-security data centres in Sydney, where agencies including the Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence stored their sensitive data.
However, in 2016, its parent company, London-based Aldersgate Investments, accepted $4 billion for a 49 per cent stake from Chinese consortium Jiangsu Shagang Group.
This was increased to almost full ownership in 2019
Amid strict new conditions imposed on Global Switch by the federal government, Defence initially planned to leave the data centres by 2020, according to the ABC.
While iTnews understands that Defence’s most sensitive data holdings were completely removed in May 2020, the department delayed its complete withdrawal for another five years.
As revealed by iTnews, Defence extended its lease with Global Switch in October 2020 after running into difficulties with its extensive migration.
The contract, now valued at $60.4 million, is due to expire on September 30 2025.
By 2022, the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) had all left Global Switch’s facilities.