Defence Housing Australia (DHA) is rolling out two new servers to reduce its data centre footprint and support the introduction of a new financial management system. DHA provides housing and related services to Department of Defence members and their families in Australia. It is responsible for 19,000 properties with a total value of approximately $10 billion. DHA also provides IT services and support to 19 housing management centres across Australia. The Oracle SPARC T5 servers, which are set to be rolled out in mid-July, will support DHA’s production environment. DHA CIO Shane Nielsen told CIO Australia that it is expecting a 30 per cent reduction in rack space required within its data centres and a reduction in the number of servers from 11 to four. “We are also expecting reduced power consumption, aiming for at least 50 per cent improvement, due to fewer servers and efficiencies in the new hardware,” he said. According to Nielsen, it did not consider using a private cloud service due to early price indications from providers showing that it may be difficult to show a return on investment. “DHA has considerable skills and history in managing SPARC servers so there were no compelling factors which pointed towards moving away from DHA’s current physical environment,” he said. “We also have a mature infrastructure platform leveraging the dark fibre available within the ACT.” DHA is also replacing a Financial Management Information System (FMIS) that is more than 15 years old. Nielsen said that the new FMIS is expected to increase the efficiency of the finance area as the current FMIS has a number of inefficiencies and requires a high level of manual systems to provide the capability that DHA requires. The FMIS is currently scheduled for rollout in Q4 of 2013. Interview: Dr Peter Lawrence, CIO, Department of Defence NAB rolls out Oracle banking platform Defence tenders for a $2 million supercomputer In January 2011, DHA went live with Oracle’s business intelligence enterprise edition (OBIEE) to replace its previous reporting product. Through OBIEE, it has been able to create an environment that allows DHA staff to focus on answering business decisions in a more timely fashion. “We have created a number of dashboards that will help with our overall planning of housing stock including the refresh, upgrade and renewal of stock around the country,” he said. “These services take into a number of different factors around both the tenancy such as maintenance and the lifecycle of the tenant moving in and out of the property based on Department of Defence requirements.” Nielsen added that the DHA was faced with the challenge of improved data visibility of 19,000 residential properties across Australia. “We now have enhanced visibility of residential property portfolio data, such as property numbers, tenancy status, vacancy rates and maintenance costs.” Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia Related content feature 10 most popular IT certifications for 2023 Certifications are a great way to show employers you have the right IT skills and specializations for the job. These 10 certs are the ones IT pros are most likely to pursue, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White May 26, 2023 8 mins Certifications Careers interview Stepping up to the challenge of a global conglomerate CIO role Dr. Amrut Urkude became CIO of Reliance Polyester after his company was acquired by Reliance Industries. He discusses challenges IT leaders face while transitioning from a small company to a large multinational enterprise, and how to overcome them. By Yashvendra Singh May 26, 2023 7 mins Digital Transformation Careers brandpost With the new financial year looming, now is a good time to review your Microsoft 365 licenses By Veronica Lew May 25, 2023 5 mins Lenovo news Alteryx works in generative AI for speedy analytics results OpenAI integration and AI wizardry for report generation are aimed at making Alteryx’s analytics products more accessible. By Jon Gold May 25, 2023 3 mins Analytics Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe