Stories by James Hutchinson

Government Cloud: Fad or lofty ideal? (Part 2)

A need for data delineation comes out of a well-established drought of local facilities from the global Cloud players, one many CIOs, both public and private, believe is preventing them from adopting an ‘all-in’ mentality to Cloud.

Government Cloud: Fad or lofty ideal?

Enter any Cloud conference, training session or seminar and you’re immediately faced with all the hallmarks of a cult. Vendor employees are no longer engineers or sales people — they are ‘evangelists’ sent to spread the good message of Cloud; their Cloud, to be precise. When presentations aren’t peppered with marketing jargon about their ‘game changing’ services, they’re often littered with judgment Clouding puns.

Shared services: Learning the lessons from Queensland and WA

Really, they should have seen it coming. All the signs were there. Queensland Health, a state government department responsible for paying its 78,000 staff some $210 million in salaries fortnightly, was in dire need for a replacement to its existing payroll system.

Q&A: AGIMO's John Sheridan on data centre strategy

A year on from the introduction of a 15-year data centre strategy, James Hutchinson sits down with the First Assistant Secretary of the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), John Sheridan, to discuss the strategy’s progress and future

Google's NFC-based Wallet a no go for Australia

Google has refused to outline plans to extend its contactless payment trials outside of the United States, but has not ruled out the possibility of its move to Australia in future.

Health shortlists infrastructure tenders

The national infrastructure partner, one of four such partners sought by the Department of Health and Ageing for the e-health rollout, would deliver, integrate and provide continued maintenance for enabling systems including core system infrastructure; operations and call centres; reporting and template servicing; and separated portals for use by both consumers and healthcare providers.

Jetstar targets lean, self-service flying

Jetstar has progressed with plans to sideline the traditional flight check-in counter, overhauling the boarding process to include automated check-ins and new self-service kiosks.

Cohen’s iSoft dispute thrown out of NSW Supreme Court

Former iSoft chief executive, Gary Cohen’s attempts to delay the medical software group’s sale to CSC have been dismissed by the NSW Supreme Court as without foundation, enabling the sale to go ahead.

Health increases telehealth bounty for specialists

The federal Department of Health and Ageing has poured an additional $216.3 million to fund its telehealth consultations scheme until 2015, with expectations around ten per cent of the nation’s practitioner workforce would take part in the scheme within five years.

Exclusive: SKA bid looks to SkyNet for computing

Key players behind the Australian-New Zealand joint bid to host the $2.1 billion Square Kilometre Array radio telescope will launch a grid Cloud computing initiative by September with the aim of potentially harvesting the computing and storage power of desktops worldwide.

Ausgrid explores customer incentives in smartgrid push

New South Wales energy utility Ausgrid is exploring customer rebates and reduced tariffs based on the differing energy saving technologies deployed at 50,000 homes slated for the Federal Government’s $100 million Smart Grid, Smart City project.

Optus, Telstra stall on access agreement case

A long-standing dispute between Telstra and Optus over the misuse of confidential market share information is set to continue into the foreseeable future, with the Federal Court ordering this week that the parties determine a possible resolution by June.

FetchTV adopts WebKit, goes open source

Australian internet protocol television (IPTV) offering FetchTV is set to adopt YouTube and ABC iView streaming in coming months as part of the startup’s switch to open source protocols.

FetchTV eyes top 10 ISPs to take on Telstra

Australian IPTV start-up FetchTV has flagged plans to ink deals with the 10 largest local service providers outside of Telstra by the end of the year in efforts to form a competitive “coalition” against the incumbent telco’s popular T-Box service.

Macquarie Uni to virtualize computer labs

Macquarie University has flagged plans to virtualize many of its student computer labs from the second semester of this year, as part of a ploy to better utilise licensed software both on-premise at the university and remotely.