While the census website failed to load for millions of Australians last night, Revolution IT can take comfort in its $470K payment for load-testing services.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics claimed to have load-tested the census site at 150% of expected usage. What that "expected usage" figure might have been — clearly not millions of concurrent visitors — Australian government tender documents reveal that at least $140K was paid to Melbourne-based Revolution IT for "load-testing services for census 2016".

The money was paid in three payments of $325,000, $90,000 and $54,367.50 in standing order SON1225932.

Specifically, the publicly available information on these tenders is here, here and here.

The service provider, Revolution IT, ABN 32 107 913 342, states the business "provides you with total confidence with our enterprise grade QA and PPM solutions. Whether you're implementing enterprise applications, making an entire digital transformation or investigating outsource options, our experience, insight and rigour will help you move forward with assurance."

With $9.6 million paid to IBM to host the census, and $469,367.50 to Revolution IT for load-testing, some serious questions exist around why the census site could not sustain the load.

This morning's argument about "hacking" is potentially credible, but at the same time, remains a vague enough claim which the common person cannot disprove. If hacking was at play, and the ABS did make the decision to turn the site off, it is interesting its official Twitter feed and other accounts merely indicated there were problems afoot and asked people to keep trying.