Air New Zealand has signed a 10-year contract with IBM which will see the national carrier outsourcing the storage and management of key IT systems to IBM's new $80million data facility in Auckland.

The new data center opened in May, and today's deal makesAir New Zealand the first company in the country to have its IT infrastructure replicated across two Tier-3 facilities.

The relationship between the two giants has come a long way since the falling out in October 2009, when a system outage saw Air New Zealand'sflight processing and electronic check-in systems shut down, causing CEO RobFyfe to lambast IBM in a strongly-worded internal email.

Fyfe commented at the time that in his thirty-year career he struggled to recall a time when he had seen a supplier so slow to react to a ‘catastrophic' system failure.

Nearly two years on, though, the two companies have moved on, Air New Zealand CFO Robert McDonald saying the move to Tier-3 facilities gives the carrier a sophisticated and reliable IT infrastructure.

"Air New Zealand's technology landscape has seen a significant shift over the last couple of years, as we continue to design and implement new innovative solutions across our business,” McDonald says.

IBM New Zealand managing director Jennifer Moxon concurs, saying IBM values its relationship with Air New Zealand.

"We are delighted to welcome their business to our new data center,” Moxon says.