Infront wins $4.9m govt deal to deliver VMware

Infront Systems has clinched a $4.9 million-dollar contract to supply VMware products and services to the Department of Social Services (DSS).

The two-year contract is "significant" for Infront, said managing director Allan King, who told CRN the deal is one of three the integrator has won in the last couple of months.

Infront also won two contracts totalling $3.4 million in March, to supply storage and infrastructure. The company has also since picked up a $1.9 million, four-year contract published in July for ICT equipment.

The contracts come amid major aged care reform by the Australian federal government, which is spending more than $3.7 billion on reform in the sector, according to the DSS Aged Care web site.

One catalyst for ICT spending is the Aged Care ICT Gateway. The service will help older Australians and their families find out how to plan for aged care, including price and service comparisons for residential aged care and a fee estimator to get an estimate of what they might be charged.

The latest spending on VMware products is part of an effort by the department to make sure it has capability in the areas of virtualisation and automation, which it needs to provide ICT products and services to multiple agencies, according to a department spokesperson.

Infront will supply VMware vCAC cloud automation software and implementation services, as well as other VMware virtualisation software such as vSphere and vCOps.

The integrator has also been awarded contracts in the past from DSS, providing services such as storage and virtualisation.

After eight years of working with the DSS, King described it as "one of the most progressive departments we've ever worked with. They have a very strong end state vision."