Frontline consortium wins $2m museum deal

Best-of-breed but with 'one throat to choke'.

A consortium led by Australian integrator Frontline Systems has won a $2 million deal to provide a wide-ranging IT and communications solution to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

Frontline, Allcom Networks, Antares Solutions, Power Cloud Solutions and the Artisan Group would work together to deliver a switched network infrastructure based on Cisco; Wi-Fi connectivity; and a Polycom video conferencing solution that was integrated with Microsoft’s Lync unified communications platform.

The consortium would also undertake a complete overhaul of all server and desktop infrastructure software for the Museum - a project which would involve desktop virtualisation software from Quest Software.

The firms were also contracted to deliver backup and disaster recovery solutions.

Frontline Systems' general manager of professional services Michael Chanter said the consortium was formed specifically to appeal to the Museum’s desire for a best-of-breed environment but with one centrally-managed 'throat to choke'.

“It reflects a maturity in the way the Museum has approached this,” Chanter said.

“The market is going out saying we want a single provider. If you can umbrella something like this it give you the chance to single outsource.”

The Museum's head of IT Karen Holt said the upgrade would support key business goals including education programs, increasing staff mobility and improving public access to the Museum’s collection and information.

“In addition, we only have a small number of IT staff, so it’s important to have an ICT infrastructure that is easy to manage”, she said.

“Frontline has provided us with the ideal design strategy to make a complete upgrade of our system with ease and limited disruption.”