Perth-headquartered IT services company ASG Group announced this morning that Lockheed Martin Australia had signed it as a subcontractor for the Department of Defence's mammoth Centralised Processing Project.
"This will support the Defence ICT environment by delivering resilient and scalable ICT facilities and infrastructure whilst remediating approximately 100 applications many users access on a daily basis," a department spokesperson told Computerworld Australia.
Lockheed Martin will lead the project, which involves consolidating the department's data centres from 280 down to 14 (11 on-shore and three overseas).
ASG described the eight-year deal with Lockheed Martin Australia as "strategically significant". The services company will provide end-to-end management of database services during the project, it said in a statement
There will be further opportunities for ASG during the project, ASG CEO Geoff Lewis said.
"The [Centralised Processing] Project will involve substantial opportunities for ASG as we work to create a robust and secure information technology environment, improving the overall effectiveness and efficiency of data centre deliver in Defence," Lewis said in a statement.
ASG will create 50 new roles as a result of the contract win, which is expected to contribute EBITDA of $1.5 million-$2 million in the 2015 financial year.
ASG report EBITDA of $22 million on revenue of $160.1 million for the 12 months ending 30 June.
The company entered a trading halt earlier this week ahead of the announcement. The trading halt was lifted today.
The Centralised Processing Project is a component of the Defence Strategic Reform Program, which began in 2009 and is intended to save the department $20 billion over 10 years; $1.9 billion of these savings are earmarked to be delivered through ICT reform.
NEC Australia said yesterday that it would partner with Lockheed Martin Australia in a $150 million contract to help maintain the stability of Defence systems during the project, re-host applications in the new environment and help decommission the old environment.
In total the Centralised Processing Project will be worth $800 million over eight years, according to defence minister David Johnston.
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