Randstad eyes cloud move to Telstra

International Recruitment and human resources consultancy Randstad will move to Telstra's infrastructure-as-a-service offering over the next three years, with a view to outsourcing all communications and infrastructure work for its Asia Pacific offices to the telco.

The company’s Sydney data centre currently provides the backbone for its operations, including a Citrix-based thin client environment that caters for 1000 employees in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Regional chief information officer Kevin O’Neill told iTnews that Randstad had initially sought to consolidate its telecommunications contracts from five suppliers to one, with data centre migration and potential cloud offerings an afterthought.

Under a three-year contract with Telstra, Randstad will move all fixed line, mobile and international MPLS network requirements to the telco.

Telstra will provide fibre connections to the vast majority of the company’s regional offices and renew a fleet of 350 mobile devices, including iPads and some mobile broadband dongles to operate over Telstra’s 4G network.

Randstad will also gradually replace its legacy hardware with services from Telstra’s cloud -- a move O'Neill described as "baby steps" and "not a go-to-the-cloud type thing".

The HR firm plans to migrate infrastructure from an in-house data centre to a Telstra colo facility in Sydney. Phase one of the project is expected to conclude by June.

Randstad will also look to overhaul its disaster recovery strategy with a key focus on taking up storage and server offerings from Telstra’s cloud as a first step.

As its Dell and EMC servers and storage reach end-of-life in the next three years, O’Neill said his team would undertake a case-by-case analysis of whether to replace them with cloud services.

“We’re reasonably conservative, we don’t want to jump straight into the cloud; it has to fit with the business and we also have to manage our business operations,” he said.

In doing so, Randstad will join growing ranks of clients on Telstra’s cloud project. The telco's cloud service, once code-named ‘Silver Lining’, has courted the likes of Komatsu and Visy, while partially relying on a partnership with Accenture to garner more business.

Telstra has so far refused to disclose how many clients have signed onto its cloud service.

It expects to invest $800 million on the service in the five years to 2016, launching a self-provisioning portal and public pricing late last year.

For Randstad, O’Neill said the initial data centre migration services could also open up the company to re-negotiating for cloud-based email and producitivity applications, though O’Neill said that would likely involve Randstad's Holland headquarters.

“Then the next time we have a SAN renewal come up we’ll certainly look at getting cloud storage from Telstra,” he said.

“If we need any virtual machines for development work, those are the sorts of things that open up to us. Those sorts of things start to come into the frame but certainly it will be a three-year strategy.”

Source http://www.itnews.com.au/News/293517,randstad-eyes-cloud-move-to-telstra.aspx

Migrant workers take risks to secure a future

Zandro Sta Maria left his wife and two children in the Philippines and embarked on a journey to Western Australia on a temporary work visa in 2006.

He was one of several men brought over to work at an abattoir in the South West and says at times he felt safety was compromised to increase productivity.

"It's normal for management to say 'hurry up, hurry up', because they have their own targets," he said.

"Towards the end of the production day everybody feels tired.

"They push you to the limit, not considering that we are just human."

It's stories like Mr Sta Maria's, and those of other migrant workers, which has prompted a study of workplace safety among Australia's migrant workforce by WA's Institute for Medical Research.

It follows international research which shows migrant workers are more prone to accidents and injuries in the workplace because they undertake high-risk jobs that native-born people are not inclined to do.

As a migrant whose right to remain in Australia depended on his ability to keep working, Mr Sta Maria says he never considered speaking to the company about working conditions.

"I worked myself really hard," he said.

"Considering that I'm from a different country, we tend to work as hard as we can and as long as the body allows us."

Despite working 10-hour shifts, he says he never complained of fatigue in fear of being dismissed and sent back to his own country.

"For us visa holders, we simply cannot say 'I've had enough', because we are hired to work and work and work and when we say 'I've had enough' there may be consequences," he said.

"I was afraid of getting fired.

"At the end of the day, if your goal is to have a better future for your family, you can never really say no."

Barriers

Associate Professor Alison Reid says despite the increasing trend of looking at immigration to address skills shortages in Australia, little research has been done in this area.

"A study was done about 30 years ago that showed migrant workers in Australia have higher fatalities at work than Australian-born workers, but this work hasn't been updated since," she said.

The study will compare the number of migrant workers to the number of Australian-born workers who are admitted to hospital due to a workplace accident or injury.

Hussain Sadiqi arrived in Australia from Afghanistan in 1999.

He quickly learned it wouldn't be easy to use his skills and qualifications.

"In Afghanistan I was the captain of national martial arts team, and had a sports science degree but that wasn't good enough," he said.

"They said you have to finish university here, and then you can get a job in physiotherapy."

Mr Sadiqi says for many people, the humiliation of not being able to work in their professional field is compounded by being on the receiving end of racism and bullying.

"They have to find something to feed their family," he said.

"That's why any job that comes along, they have to accept.

"Because they're not experienced in that job, they may face bullying and racism."

Unaware

Australia has some of the highest standards of occupational health and safety regulations in the world but many migrants don't know this.

The Multicultural Services Centre of WA's executive director, Ramdas Sankaran, says many migrants are at a disadvantage.

"Many of these people who come to Australia are not just not proficient in English, but they're not literate in their own languages," he said.

"They're not necessarily familiar with the equipment they are asked to use in terms of safe handling procedures.

"Most of what we do by way of occupational health and safety is done in written English. If you're not fluent in English, where does that leave you?"

Mr Sankaran says employers need to ensure migrants understand the safety guidelines that govern their work.

He recommends visual hazard signs and safety information written in languages other than English.

Mr Sankaran says migrants take on any job they can get, and this is often work they are not accustomed to.

"Out of sheer desperation and nothing else, when a person has qualifications which aren't recognized in Australia, they go into whatever jobs they can lay their hands on and sometimes its employment that may not necessarily be suited to their physical capacity," he said.

Few options

He says people with poor English skills usually take on manual labour, and have little chance of progressing into supervisory positions.

"Most of us don't live and die in the same job, we manage to work our way upwards," he said.

"But, if you're not good at English and don't have too many skills other than lifting stuff or cleaning, you're going to be stuck in jobs that your body won't be able to cope with as you age."

Professor Reid says the study will take all of these issues into account.

"We are interested in talking to people about physical risks such as exposure to chemicals or asbestos," she said.

"But, also psycho-social hazards in the workplace including the stresses which arise from racism, bullying and job insecurity."

Mr Sankaran says racism is a harsh reality in many Australian work environments.

"To have a person in a supervisory position indulge in racist name calling, clearly they're putting enormous pressure on a person who is already under incredible physical and mental strain," he said.

"It can be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

The study is recruiting men and women born in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

If you would like to participate, please phone Cema Santos on (08) 9346 1514 or email cema.santos@waimr.uwa.edu.au.

Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-05/migrant-worker-risk-study-feature/3869018?section=wa

DiData lands Aussie customer for new cloud

news Global IT services outfit Dimension Data has announced a new range of global cloud services, simultaneously revealing it has signed up the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications to use the platform.

The new Dimension Data Cloud Services, according to a statement by the company issued late last week, will enable customers to be more agile, lower their IT infrastructure management expenses and minimise the complexity of cloud migration. Dimension Data’s Managed Cloud Platform (MCP) is the global delivery platform for all its cloud services, and Dimension Data Cloud Control is a cloud management system that automates provisioning, orchestration, administration and billing. The two services are now going to be utilised by ac3 (Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications) under a new contract between the two companies.

ac3 provides IT infrastructure management services to clients including the NSW Government. It offers a wide variety of managed services including operating systems management, database administration, network and security management and storage management.

“Dimension Data was the clear choice for managing our clients’ cloud computing environments. We were impressed by the inherent security features as well as the automation of cloud resource provisioning,” said Philip McCrea, CEO of ac3, in DiData’s statement. “This initiative enables us to offer our clients a valuable additional level of service by providing them with infrastructure to run their business applications instead of them having to procure their own equipment. Combining Dimension Data’s platform with ac3’s experience gained from co-location and managed services, gives us the ability to deliver cloud computing solutions to our clients with improved service level agreements.”

DiData said its new cloud suite is designed to address the many requirements of an organisation’s path to the cloud, whether at the beginning of its usage of cloud and virtualisation, or well on its way to leveraging the benefits of self-service, hybrid cloud models. The primary claimed advantage of using Dimension Data’s Cloud Services is that all services are delivered on the same platform making it easier and more cost-effective to expand from one cloud model to another when the demands of the business change.

Dimension Data’s MCP will be a key part of ac3’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering along with storage, data management and perimeter security services. The pre-configured infrastructure, according to the company, provides ac3 access to an orchestration layer for the deployment of cloud infrastructure that will allow ac3 manage its clients’ migration to the cloud more effectively.

In its media release, DiData said its cloud services would range across a number of areas, from advisory and consulting services to cloud systems integration, to public, private and hosted private compute-as-a-service offerings, to managed hosting and managed services, to applications services.

“Our clients realise the transformational potential of cloud computing, whether it’s moving into new markets, launching new products, or improving IT efficiency,“ said Steve Nola, CEO of Dimension Data’s Cloud Solutions Business Unit and former leader of the group’s Australian division. “They’re also aware that migrating to the cloud is complex, with significant implications to their business across operations and IT. Our Cloud Services are designed to help clients reduce cost, move faster and manage risk effectively.”

opinion/analysis

Not since CSC Australia issued a media release claiming it was offering “on-premise private cloud” has an Australian IT services organisation issued a media release so full of complete and utter waffle about cloud computing as DiData did last week. The company ought to be ashamed about the lack of technical detail which it included in its statement about its new cloud offerings.

DiData is a great company. Out of all the systems integrators and IT services companies in Australia, it’s one of my favourites. And I regularly hear good things about them from end customers (chief information officers and the like). However, the media release which the company issued this week announcing its new suite of global cloud services said absolutely nothing about what the company will actually be providing and simply appeared to cram in as many mentions of the word “cloud” as was humanly possible. For the record, it was 71 times in one media release.

I’d like to see the following basic questions about DiData’s “cloud” offered before I put any credence to the company’s claims that it can aid organisations in helping customers to be more agile, lower infrastructure expenses and reduce cloud migration complexity and risk:

What technologies does DiData’s cloud use (storage, processing, networking, virtualisation, management and so on)?

Where is it located (South Africa? Australia? The moon?)?

How much does it cost to use it?

How is the multi-tenanted cloud environment set up — what sorts of customers will be using this section?

What is the guaranteed uptime/availability?

Which virtual environments are supported (Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc)?

How possible is it to migrate workloads in and out of DiData’s infrastructure from and to the infrastructure of other providers?

What applications are supported on a ‘as-a-service’ model?

That’s just a start. I’ve got plenty more questions where those came from. If someone from DiData wants to get in touch (perhaps in the comments below this article) to provide some illumination on the situation, that’d be great.

Source http://delimiter.com.au/2012/02/27/didata-lands-aussie-customer-for-new-cloud/

Funeral to be held for former Solomon Islands Governor General

Solomon Island's first Governor General Sir Baddeley Devesi will be farewelled in a funeral service today.

The 71-year-old former statesman, who passed away on Thursday, served as Governor-General of the Solomon Islands for two consecutive terms - from July 1978 to July 1988.

Later he also served as Foreign Minister, Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the nineties.

Source http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201202/s3434706.htm

Changes to international student visas good news for economy

INTERNATIONAL students will more easily be able to apply for visas following changes announced by Federal Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Chris Bowen.

The changes, welcomed by the higher education sector, mean the number of assessment levels across a range of student visa subclasses will be reduced, making the visa application process easier for students from 29 countries.

The changes, which will take effect from March 24, are in response to the immigration department’s 2011 review of student visa assessment level settings.

"While it was recommended that some assessment levels be increased, I have decided to only implement the reductions in order to best support Australia's international education sector,'' Mr Bowen said.

Mr Bowen said the changes would help around 10,500 prospective students.

"These changes will particularly benefit the postgraduate research sector, English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students and vocational education and training providers.''

For example, South Koreans studying VET and ELICOS courses and postgraduate research students from China, India and Indonesia will now find it easier to apply for visas, Mr Bowen said.

Universities Australia welcomed the changes to the student visa system as "a terrific outcome''.

“It really is a terrific outcome not just for the higher education sector but for the Australian economy more broadly because at a time we’re seeing manufacturing struggling, tourism struggling, both primarily because of the strong Australian dollar, it’s really important for those industries that are strong to be able to step up to offset some of those economic implications,” said Universities Australia chief executive, Belinda Robinson.

"The international education sector is Australia's third largest export industry, and over the 2010-11 period international higher education students spent an average of $38,000 each in this country on goods, services and fees.

“And as well the stronger our international education industry is, the more affordable education is for Australian students.”

Meanwhile a new report released by ranking provider QS (Quacquarelli Symonds Limited) found Australian cities are among the most attractive study destinations in the world.

Using scores that take into account student mix, affordability, quality of living and employer activity, as well as their own QS World University Rankings, the company compiled a top fifty list of the ''best student cities''.

Ms Robinson said that according to QS, Australia had more cities than any other country in the world listed in the top 50, making it one of the world's most favourable study environments.

If "affordability'' was removed as a criterion, Melbourne and Sydney would be ranked at number 1 and 4 respectively.

"While it may be a little more expensive to live and study in Australia, the quality of living, employment opportunities, student mix and the quality of universities makes Australia a very appealing place for those seeking to study abroad,” Ms Robinson said.

Source http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/changes-to-international-student-visas-good-news-for-economy/story-e6freuzr-1226271725888

NBN to deliver virtual English tuition to new migrants

The Federal Government will introduce a three-year trial of virtual English classes via the National Broadband Network (NBN) to new migrants in regional and rural Australia.

The initiative, which is expected to cost $5.1 million and is part of the government’s Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), is designed to help migrants settle into regional communities and will initially involve up to 200 new migrants.

The immigration minister, Chris Bowen, said the trial would enhance the capacity for e-learning and will be deployed progressively from 2012.

“Gaining English language proficiency is crucial to successfully settling in Australia,” he said in a statement.

“This trial will deliver improved resources consistent with the AMEP distance learning and advanced learning options that facilitate real time video-based teacher/client interaction, leading to improvements in speech and pronunciation.”

The first phase of the trial will provide online resources for distance learning teachers and home tutors, followed by the delivery of interactive and collaborative services to distance learning members in NBN-connected areas.

The trial is expected to end in 2013-14.

Source http://www.cio.com.au/article/414697/nbn_deliver_virtual_english_tuition_new_migrants/?fp=4&fpid=21

Abbott promises hope and opportunity

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says his vision for Australia is to restore hope and opportunity by delivering lower taxes, better services, more recruitment jobs and stronger borders.

Mr Abbott began what has been billed as a positive National Press Club address by attacking the Labor government's record.

The government had weakened Australia's economy and society, he said.

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"It does not have to be this way. We could be so much better than this," he said.

"What Australia most needs now is a competent, trustworthy, adult government with achievable plans for a better economy and a stronger society.

"My vision for Australia is to restore hope, reward and opportunity by delivering lower taxes, better migration services, more opportunities for work and stronger borders."

Mr Abbott said a coalition government would do fewer things but do them better.

Harking back to the Howard years, Mr Abbott said he knew how to build a stronger economy because he was a senior minister in a government that did so.

"Australians can be confident that the Liberal and National parties will provide good economic management in the future because that is what we have always done in the past. We have done it before and we will do it again," he said.

"After all, 16 members of the current shadow cabinet were ministers in the Howard government which now looks like a lost golden age of reform and prosperity."

Mr Abbott said his plan for a strong economy was to scrap unnecessary taxes, cut government spending and reduce the red tape burden on business.

He said Labor was lecturing the Europeans while copying their failures, turning a $20 billion surplus into a $167 billion debt and $70 billion in net Commonwealth assets into $133 billion of net debt.

"That's $6000 for every Australian man woman and child," he said.

Mr Abbott said at the heart of Labor's failure was the assumption that bigger government and higher taxes were the answer to every problem.

"This government has completely failed to appreciate the iron law of economics that no country has ever taxed its way to prosperity. The only foundation for a successful country is a strong economy," he said.

Mr Abbott said the coalition would identify savings from programs that "have become by-words for waste".

This included scrapping the carbon and mining taxes, cutting the computers in schools program and GP superclinics, not adding extra bureaucracies for hospitals, finding cheaper ways to buy and install digital set top boxes on televisions, reducing consultancies and dropping 12,000 workers from the public service.

"We'll release all our costings in good time before the next election," he said.

If the coalition won government, Mr Abbott's first act as prime minister would be to repeal Labor's carbon tax legislation "to take the pressure off the power prices and transport prices that feed through to every price in our economy".

But that didn't mean householders could no longer look forward to tax cuts.

"Australians can have tax cuts without a carbon tax but only if we get government spending down by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary programs and permanently reducing the size of government," he said.

He said countries, like businesses, have to get better at what they do.

"We appreciate that all the stakeholders in Australia Inc eventually need to see a dividend as the reward for their hard work," Mr Abbott said.

The opposition leader also reiterated a coalition government would install local boards to run hospitals and deliver a "fair dinkum" paid parental leave scheme.

On the immigration front, Mr Abbott stressed that "nothing makes me prouder to be an Australian than the eagerness of people from all over the world to swap their life for ours".

He also wanted to end forever any lingering suspicion that the coalition had a good head but a cold heart for dealing with Aboriginal people too.

"Should I become prime minister, I will spend at least a week every year in a remote indigenous community because if these places are good enough for Australians to live in they should be good enough for a prime minister and senior officials to stay in," he said.

"The measure of a decent society is how it looks after its most vulnerable members."

But he also said there would be "tough love" for those on unemployment benefits.

"Why should fit young people be able to take the dole when unskilled work is readily available?

"Why should middle-aged people with bad backs or a bout of mental illness be semi-permanently parked on the disability pension because it's easier than helping them to experience once more the fulfilment of work?"

The Liberal leader said he strongly supported the Productivity Commission's recommendation for a disability insurance scheme "but with an estimated price tag of $6 billion a year ... this important and necessary reform can't fully be implemented until the budget returns to strong surplus".

Mr Abbott, a former health minister, said he always envisaged putting dental services generally on Medicare but stressed universal access was a coalition "aspiration and not a commitment".

"Like disability insurance this would be an expensive reform at over $4 billion a year," he said.

"It's the kind of initiative that can't responsibly be implemented until the budget returns to strong surplus."

Mr Abbott said that if elected prime minister he would lead a pragmatic, problem-solving government where pragmatism would be based on "mainstream Australian values".

"By the close of the next coalition government's first term, I am confident that waste, mismanagement and reckless spending will have been brought under control," he said.

"More tax cuts will be in prospect, there will be community-controlled public schools and hospitals, and just about every fit working-age person will be in work, preferably for a wage but if not for the dole."

Mr Abbott concluded his speech by arguing the best way to help the country right now would be to change the government.

"Changing the government, of course, is but a means to an end - to bring out the best in our people and in our nation."