Auckland-based hosting company Revera is confident the proposed Supercity will present it with new business opportunities, as the Auckland Transition Authority (ATA) grapples with the task of integrating the differing ICT systems of the various Auckland councils.
Revera director Roger Cockayne made this observation when his company extended an agreement with the North Shore City Council (NSCC).
All seven North Shore libraries recently migrated their databases, digital catalogues, library website and niche applications to a virtualised platform located at Revera’s Type-R Albany datacentre.
Revera is also supporting 80-plus staff desktops and the council’s network performance.
The three-year deal gives council libraries better access to North Shore City Council’s systems, such as rates collection.
The deal will run concurrent to a five-year arrangement that NSCC signed with Revera in 2007.
Then, it migrated its entire IT operations, including 146 servers and more than 100 applications, to Revera’s virtualised, high-density computing platform. The majority of the Council’s software applications are ported on Citrix.
Cockayne says negotiation for the libraries contract began in mid-2008, before the Royal Commission announced its plans for the Auckland Supercity.
Though the ATA begins the task of bringing the councils together in July, no change is expected on existing contractual arrangements.
“The Supercity is not threatening anything,” he says.
Instead, Cockayne sees opportunities for Revera to carry out similar services as it already does for NSCC.
Indeed, Revera has also just signed a five-year deal with Watercare Services, which Cockayne sees as another part of the Supercity, especially as the ATA is headed by Watercare CEO Mark Ford.
“Outsourcing infrastructure will be cost effective for it, as will be shown when NSCC shows the numbers to everybody else,” Cockayne adds.
North Shore City Council CIO Tony Rogers confirms business as usual for the council, adding the Supercity should not affect contractual arrangements similar to what NSCC has with Revera.
Rogers expects it will be several months before the ATA begins grappling with the IT systems and management in any sufficient detail.
Then, it would be up to the ATA or the new Auckland Council to handle any changes.
“We are just providing services as normal,” he says.