A multimillion-dollar deal under which Air New Zealand would outsource the hosting of its mainframes to Telecom's Gen-i has not yet moved beyond a memorandum of understanding that was leaked in June, sources say. IBM currently houses the systems at an ageing facility in Auckland that was originally built by Air NZ and later transferred to the vendor.
Air New Zealand wanted to move the mainframe to a more robust facility after an October power failure at the datacentre resulted in the cancellation of dozens of flights, embarrassing IBM.
Air NZ spokeswoman Tracy Mills appeared to confirm the datacentre deal with Gen-i was not yet in the bag. The airline still plans to move the equipment, she said, and was "in discussions with vendors for a suitable replacement". She later clarified the discussions were with only one vendor.
IBM expects to open a new datacentre in Auckland in March.
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