In formulating the Ballarat ICT 2030 a whole lot of things will have to be considered and included in this significant strategy for the future. One goal must be to ensure that this strategy links to related initiatives being pursued under separate strategies.
- ICT 2030 Strategy does not stand alone and needs to be part of Ballarat's broader planning context.
- Ballarat's communications network is possibly better than any other regional area in Australia.
- Costs across Ballarat are probably comparable except where distance back to Melbourne or other locations is a factor in pricing.
There are opportunities for Ballarat to leapfrog other regions - but this will require a communal rather than technological solution. The challenge will be to ensure that the developed approach is one that cannot easily be replicated by other regions.
- Fibre to every house - that's our future!
But it's not just hard wires and pipes. It's important that we don't get distracted and focus the whole strategy in this area. Strategies for the short-term may include:
- Continue to address problems with last mile
- Tackle the challenge of joining up all the breaks in the pipe
- Ensure planning regulations support provisioning in new estates
- Future proofing current infrastructure
- Begin exploring opportunities for economies of scale
- Use demand aggregation as a mechanism for opening up available pipes
Whether right or wrong business perceive they are disadvantaged compared to metropolitan businesses.
- When distance costs are removed then you get equality “capacity alone“ does not address tyranny of distance.
- Ballarat should lobby for price parity with metropolitan Australia.
Infrastructure advances need to be demand-driven. Opportunities exist to:
- More fully utilise existing capacity
- Open up more of the available capacity
- Have in place mechanisms to ensure that Ballarat can ramp up and down its requirements as needed.
Steps in securing these opportunities may include:
- Audit what we've got and define the level of enabled infrastructure we need
- Confirm our position as potentially the best positioned regional centre in Australia.
- Work out what where Ballarat wants to get, for example:
- What industry do we want to attract?
- What flexible delivery of services can be enabled over the Internet?
- Then ensure that the required delivery infrastructure, pricing structures, shared services, and expertise is in place.
Infrastructure is not only about data, it's also about governance.
- New people networks will be required to move goals forward in the infrastructure and shared service areas.
Ballarat needs to look at the best possible ways to share infrastructure
- Shared responsibilities may be achieved through local and regional partnerships, e.g. Ballarat and Bendigo could have reciprocal diaster recovery infrastructure arrangements.
- Achieve flexible bandwidth strategy
To realise opportunities for Ballarat through the development of infrastructure for shared services is likely that:
- Larger organisations (health, university, council) may opt in first.
- Goal will be to ensure that Ballarat is well positioned to provide shared services for business and the broader regional community as regulatory and other compliance requirements tighten in the future.
Storage facility is a part of this but not enough on its own
- What Ballarat needs is the whole package "bandwidth, connectivity between locations, skills, Ideal production/production“ all sites live "some live in Ballarat“ load share - with other regions i.e. Bendigo.
Ongoing education for IT firms and others
- Ballarat must become much more proactive in generating greater awareness and knowledge of what's possible through the adoption of new technologies.
Images
Click here to see images from the Infrastructure Panel
