The project, run with partner Macquarie Telecom, involved the consolidation of most of the DHS’ networking and security infrastructure as well as 36 physical servers and 42 virtual servers to eight HP blade servers.

In addition to cutting costs and increasing reliability, the project is expected to provide power savings of up to 83 per cent.

Further, the time for the DHS to set up new services and websites has been reduced from three to four weeks to three to four days.

The announcement follows news from the DHS in December that it had , including internet hosting requirements, due to internal staffing issues and the sheer amount of work. The government department - which has become a bastion of shared services consolidation - has agreed to in-source the Department of Veterans’ Affairs infrastructure and relevant staff.

The agency also intends to with an aim to better listen and respond to conversations concerning the department’s offerings.