CBA, Telstra join Open Data Centre Alliance

The Open Data Centre Alliance (ODCA) has signed up the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Telstra as adopter members of its cloud and data centre roadmap.

The two companies get access to ODCA’s usage models which are designed to help members with data centre purchasing and planning decisions. In addition, CBA and Telstra will have the opportunity to assess new cloud technologies.

Commonwealth Bank’s CIO, Michael Harte, said that its advocacy of cloud and the potential benefits for both employees and customers were a priority.

“That’s why we are actively involved in industry organisations, such as the ODCA, which help to set standards and accelerate innovation to deliver faster more efficient rich services on demand, not just for ourselves but for broader industry interests and economic benefit,” he said in a statement.

In November 2012, Harte told participants at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) event in Sydney that the bank has shifted a dozen on-premise applications to the cloud. “The operational cost reduction is huge,” he said at the time.

“We’ve halved storage costs, we’ve halved most of our app testing and development cost. We’ve got a wide range of technology functions as a service. We’ve got application development, testing, infrastructure, software and storage.”

Harte added that the bank was looking for a “40 per cent improvement in pricing across all the things that we consume as a service”.

Telstra director of cloud services Stuart Smith said he was looking forward to engaging with peers from a variety of industries to help the telco increase the “depth and breadth” of its cloud offerings for customers.

In December 2012, Telstra announced the next stage of its $800 million cloud services investment with new data centres set to go live in Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory in Q1 of 2013.

A new Victorian data centre will also be opened during 2014 in Clayton, Melbourne, complementing an existing facility in the city.

The ODCA is an independent IT consortium comprised of companies who have come together to provide guidance for long-term data centre requirements. It is led by a 12 member steering committee which includes the National Australia Bank (NAB), BMW, Capgemini, China Unicom, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, T-Systems, Terremark, Disney Technology Solutions and Services, and UBS.

Intel serves as technical advisor to the ODCA. The University of Melbourne’s Clouds Lab is a contributor member.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

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