Defence counts $1.5bn-plus investment for enterprise data and ICT

Defence is looking at an investment in enterprise data and ICT of up to $11 billion through to mid-2034, though only a fraction of that - $1.5 billion - is considered “approved”.

The numbers are contained in the 2024 integrated investment program for Defence, announced Wednesday.

The program is also said to contain a boost for cyber capabilities, with $3.3 billion of spending approved, and up to $17 billion more potentially earmarked.

From an IT perspective, Defence is under relatively new leadership - CIO Chris Crozier has been there under a year - and now operates under a revised organisational structure.

IT investments over the next decade are split between networks ($790 million) and enterprise systems ($660 million).

Three main programs of work are highlighted.

This includes “an uplift of Defence’s single information environment (SIE) to strengthen network security and agility and deliver next‑generation Defence networks”.

Defence has been shaping to upgrade the SIE - the name given to its ICT environment - to a “version 2.0” since 2022.

Money is also set to be put against the OneDefence data program to “improve the storage, management, acquisition and discovery of data”, acting as foundations for advanced analytics; and to the “establishment of a consolidated enterprise resource planning and management system across Defence.”

Again, neither of these programs of work is new, but they are of a considerable size.

Cyber funding, meanwhile, will be naturally directed to REDSPICE, an already $10 billion cyber capability project for the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD); it’s not clear if any funding in the integrated investment program is new or adds to the existing stated investment target.

Some funding is allocated to improving “warfighting” capabilities in the cyber domain, and also to “modernising Defence’s cryptography to provide enduring communications security.”

The integrated investment program is materially larger than the last time this plan was written - growing from $270 billion to $330 billion overall, Defence minister Richard Marles said.

The investment program comes a year after the findings of a strategic review into Defence was handed down, which included some recommendations for restructuring ICT capabilities and architecture.