FedGov reveals first cloud providers in new supply deal

Nearly 50 IT suppliers have scored spots in the first round of the Federal government's new cloud procurement panel, though many of the channel's biggest suppliers are still missing.

[Click here for the full list of suppliers]

The new Cloud Service Panel is set to replace the Data Centre-as-a-Service (DCaaS) multi-use list through which government agencies have been procuring cloud services since 2012.

Just $2 million of services have been procured via DCaaS since its inception.

Agencies will not be forced to buy from the new Cloud Service Panel scheme – as is the case of a number of other IT procurement panels – but will be encouraged to look upon the list as a way to get into the cloud market in partnership with government-endorsed sellers.

The CSP is intended as a more comprehensive arrangement for buying cloud services, with four categories spanning software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and cloud consulting.

The 49 suppliers in the first two tranches announced on Friday include big guns such as IBM, NEC, Macquarie Telecom, Datacom and Ethan Group, but the panel is mostly packed with smaller IT consultancies, such as software developer Agile Digital, financial software provider Avoka, Google partner Oobe, authentication expert Cogito Group and ERP provider Connexxion.

Many of the noteworthy names from DCaaS are absent from the initial panel, such as Data#3, Dimension Data, HP, Harbour IT, NextDC, Thomas Duryea Consulting and Bulletproof.

[See all DCaaS suppliers here]

The DCaaS arrangement will continue to run until October 2015, after which it is understood it will be wholly replaced by the Cloud Services Panel.

The DCaaS arrangement covered market approaches up to $80,000 with contract terms up to 12 months, while the Cloud Services Panel has no pre-determined spend level or time frame.

Newly crowned panel member Dialog Information Technology will take Google and Microoft Azure solutions to the Federal government.

Glenn Irvine, national practice manager, Google, at Dialog, said the government's "cloud first" policy will be a boon for the Brisbane-based company.

"Our offerings in the Google cloud – and with advisory services for agencies considering a move to cloud around security, sovereignty, privacy and the appropriate architecture for a public sector uptake of cloud services – will benefit from our experience across the sector with these services and early pilots," said Irvine.

Nicholas Power, chief operating officer of Perth-based Zettagrid, told CRN: "As one of the select members of the Cloud Services Panel we’re proud to offer agencies immediate access to Australian-owned infrastructure-as-a-service.

"We have invested heavily in automating our data centre and storage services to make provisioning and managing the Zettagrid cloud intuitive and convenient.”