Regional Western Australia council, City of Bunbury, has selected IBM’s PureSystems technology to streamline and simplify their IT infrastructure and provide a Cloud-ready environment to deliver future initiatives such as local government private Cloud computing.
The deal was signed in November and the new system went live early February.
City of Bunbury CEO, Andrew Brien, said the partnership was inked due to the exponential growth of data and server sprawl, which resulted in a need for a scalable solution to address current and future needs.
According to Brien, the City of Bunbury wants to establish itself as a best practice hub for other councils in both WA and around Australia.
“Our end goal is to not only deliver exceptional 24/7 levels of service to Bunbury’s residents, but establish the City as a technology leader whose IT systems can become a template for other councils throughout the state and beyond,” he said.
Brien also added that macro changes, such as the NBN, will radically shape governance in Bunbury and Australia more broadly.
“We are on the cusp of significant reform. Our primary goal has always been to make sure our IT systems can handle whatever changes may occur. That way we know that when our own functions of government have to adapt and expand, the technology we use will be able to match us at every turn.”
The City of Bunbury also expects the PureFlex-enabled virtual server environment to reduce hardware replacement costs, power consumption and time spent maintaining the multiple platforms that currently sustain the City’s IT operations.
As per the agreement, the IBM PureFlex System integrates server, IBM Storwize V7000 storage, networking and software into a highly automated, simple-to-manage system. Bunbury, along with Stott + Hoare, will virtualise their desktops and mobile devices to reside on the IBM PureFlex system.
