The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is transitioning its data centre operations from NEXTDC to a CDC Data Centres facility. 

This move comes as the AEC prepares for potential federal elections in late 2024. 

The AEC signed an $8 million contract with CDC Data Centres on 2 July 2024. This agreement spans ten years, potentially extending to 2036. 

The new contract overlaps with the existing decade-long deal with NEXTDC, set to expire in December 2024, ensuring a smooth transition of services.

An AEC spokesperson explained the need for a new market approach due to the expiration of the NEXTDC contract. 

“The timing of the approach to market was driven by the potential that the 24/25 federal election could be called in the second half of 2024, which would prevent any migration activities beyond September 2024 without generating significant risk to election IT operations,” the commission has told iTnews. 

The migration is designed to maintain the security and stability of IT systems crucial for election operations.

CDC Data Centres secured the contract through a competitive tender process, as part of a panel organised by the Digital Transformation Agency. 

The AEC is leveraging this move to also reduce its on-premises infrastructure.

“We are taking the opportunity to downsize our on-premises infrastructure and make further investments into cloud capabilities,” the spokesperson added.

The AEC's current data centre supports core WAN infrastructure, internal business systems, and election delivery services. 

The migration plan includes four key milestones to be achieved before October: preparing the new CDC facility, establishing core carriage services, migrating AEC infrastructure, and completing assurance activities for the 2024/25 federal election, which encompass disaster recovery testing and high availability failovers.