In the media hype surrounding the announcement of the FTTN Tender and the government’s subsequent quest to find three viable telecommunications consortia willing to jostle for the right to build Australia’s digital backbone, it would be easy to forget that connectivity “within” Australia is only half the story. With the completion of the Pipe Networks Project Runway cable between Australia and Guam in 2009, Australian companies will have invested half a billion US dollars in less than 5 years to increase capacity on links to Australia by almost 50%. These figures include both the USD$200 million for Project Runway, and the USD$300 million for Telstra’s Sydney-Hawaii cable due online in Q4 2008. At that stage, our national productivity will effectively lay in the hands of Telstra, Telecom New Zealand, Singapore Telecom, France Telecom, Verizon, and Pipe Networks who will collectively own all submarine cables (and therefore all the data packets) to and from Australia.

Current estimates by the Federal Finance Minister’s department put federal government ICT spending at $6 billion per annum. This is a figure almost unchanged from the last official assessment by the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted in 2002-2003. That original survey actually put total annual Federal Government ICT capital and operating expenses at $7.3 billion, including close to $1 billion in internal wages and salaries. A little surprisingly, these figures represent roughly half of our own estimates based on our recent ICT Spending and Priorities study that puts core Federal Government spending as high as $16 billion. By comparison, Queensland Government regularly estimates its ICT spending to be in excess of $1 billion per annum. It is not surprising then that the Finance Ministry, like the Queensland and other State Governments before it, is turning its attention to establishing a better understanding of the ICT portfolio.

The numbers being discussed by government and media surrounding the national broadband network initiative are huge; $4.7 billion, 98% penetration (that's about 21,000,000 people), and so the numbers roll on. Studies such as the Queensland Household Survey; Computer and Internet Usage (longitudinal since 2001), and the OECD Broadband penetration report fundamentally outline the adoption of internet usage and have helped to shape popular discussion and policy. Yet as the internet morphs and changes and the network effect takes a stranglehold on all facets of business and consumer life, the longitudinal benefits of such approaches are starting to quickly date. The world has reached an inflection point and it is time to quickly rewrite the approach to internet measurement. Ubiquitous accessibility is flattening traditional user demographic measurements such as age, income, gender and geography. As such their importance is changing and becoming less relevant. The same can be said for the measurement of types of broadband access (cable, satellite, ADSL, wireless or dial-up).

Having not being invited to the Australian 2020 Summit in Canberra I contented myself instead with a 10-year old book entitled The Changing Faces of the Malaysian Economy (Okposin et al, 1991). Specifically the book contains a chapter called "Vision 2020 and Multimedia Super Corridor Development". As the Australian 2020 Summit evolved, came, and went, I have been constantly reminded of the Malaysian framework, and how strongly the aims and direction of Australia's summit and the stated address of Prime Minister Rudd, resonates with the seventeen year old Malaysian strategy. Its visionary was Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and its stated aim has been to launch Malaysia into the first world. Starting with the mission of Vision 2020 it is interesting to draw the comparison.

Understanding basic design elements, and their constraints, will determine success or failure of the best assembled data centre strategy. At present it seems market hype is obscuring data centre basics and leaving simple options off the table. Regardless of the technologies employed data centres fundamentally need access to four finite utilities: power, water, bandwidth and physical space. In order for CIOs and CTOs, or the managed service providers who support them, to successfully meet their green obligations while still meeting critical business outcomes, the innovative use of these utilities, and data centre services on offer in the local market, will be paramount.