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The Malta Independent | Thursday 30 April 2015
Reducing MITA’s carbon footprint The editorial team of the ICT Feature met with STUART CUSCHIERI from the MITA Data Centre and asked him about the Agency’s efforts with regards to its carbon footprint at the data centre. Stuart is a Solutions Architect specialised on Systems and Databases and works within the Infrastructure Services Department.
Roderick Spiteri
Roderick Spiteri is Marketing and Communications Manager at MITA and editor of Malta Independent ICT feature
Q: What did the process involve and how did it impact the environment? A: The process to migrate a physical server to a virtual one actually does not increase pressure on the environment in any sort of way. The main challenge of the
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
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his week we will take a look at what the MITA Data Centre in Santa Venera is doing in order to reduce its carbon footprint. We met up with Stuart from the MITA Control Centre who told us how the Agency reduced its energy consumption and saved tonnes of CO2 emissions through a virtual-
isation exercise. MITA has once again launched its Student Placement Programme – this year with added flexibility that allows employers to agree with the selected students on when the placement shall start and also on their working hours. SPP allows students to gain first-hand experience of what the workplace has to offer
Employers can temporarily engage students with ICT competences and get 50% of the wage co-financed by Government drawbacks and management had no hesitation to give the green light for the project. The other challenge we encountered was to demonstrate to colleagues and clients that the platform was robust and secure and that the notion of having all of your eggs in one basket was mistaken. It did not take long for them to realise that being on a virtual environment actually increases server uptime as there are less physical components to maintain and therefore more failover options. Today, the virtual platform is one of MITA’s most reliable platforms with close to 100% uptime each year. For more information about the MITA Data Centre visit mita.gov.mt/datacentre
process is to find an opportune time for the migration to be carried out, as the service that the physical server provides will be understandably be unavailable during the migration process. Q: What were the biggest challenges in this project? A: The initial main challenge was to gain the necessary knowledge on virtualisation technologies and actually test the products ourselves. Once we were confident with the setup, we presented our results to management for the funding of the actual virtualised platform. It was clear to everyone that the benefits far outweighed the
MITA in collaboration with the Parliamentary Secretariat for Competitiveness and Economic Growth has launched the Student Placement Programme (SPP) for 2015. Addressing a seminar for employers, Tony Sultana - MITA’s Executive Chairman, said that “the Student Placement Programme is a win-win opportunity for both students and employers. Students stand to gain relevant work experience whilst employers are able to engage temporary additional resources competent in ICT and ICT-related skills.” This year the Programme introduces a new element of flexibility whereby employers and students can mutually agree on when the placement shall start and also on their working hours. “MITA facilitates this experience and provides incentives to employers to offer temporary work placements,” continued Mr Sultana. The Student Placement Programme is open for all entities (private and public) operating in the ICT sector and other organi-
sations (NGOs) which use technology in their operations – such as those that operate in the tourism, education, health, or manufacturing sectors. “We invite local firms to explore the possibilities of engaging skilled students to work not only on purely technical projects but also on creative small outreach projects such as training, awareness rising, or digital advertising. Every employer can tap into the Programme and benefit from an eager talent pool that is ready to actively participate in providing innovative ideas.” Through SPP, employers can be reimbursed for the students they take on during summer. The cofinancing rate for the private sector is 50% of the salary costs whilst for the public sector it is 100%. SPP is also open to nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) where the co-financing rate is 100% of the students’ salary. The seminar was also addressed by Hon Dr José Herrera, Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth and said that, “SPP is a success story as it acts as a bridge between education and the workplace. This will allow participating students to sharpen their soft
skills and thus develop the communication, confidence and character that they need in their future careers.” “Government is committed to apply technology in a way that it makes an effective difference in areas such as employment, industry and small businesses.” Hon Herrera also encouraged entities that have in the past participated in SPP to act as ambassadors for the programme and share their experience with other employers. “We know that the most important resource for many local firms is human capital. SPP is a way how entities can have a say and shape the future workforce” The guidelines for reimbursement provide that the students are employed for 330 reimbursable hours at the rate of €5.82 per hour. In general, students are employed between July and September. However, employers are free to make flexible arrangements with their selected students as to the starting date and the delivery of hours per week. Entities that wish to participate in the SPP should apply online by providing their requirements in terms of skills and number of students. MITA will then match
Coding in schools – a European snapshot Coding is becoming a key competence which will have to be acquired by all young students and increasingly by workers in a wide range of industries and professions. Coding is essential to the ability to create digital value - it underpins the part of logical reasoning and represents one of the key skills which are part of what is now called “21st century skills”. In 2014 European Schoolnet (www.eun.org) launched a survey to get a consistent picture of the integration of Coding in school curricula. With findings from 20 Ministries of Education across Europe, the survey indicates that a growing number of countries now integrate coding as a formal part of the curriculum. From the 20 countries participating in the survey, 12 of them already have computer programming and coding integrated their
by working on meaningful projects while employers are able to recruit temporary talent out of which they can identify potential future employees. In this week’s feature we also look at a study about coding or programming being taught in schools across Europe. Some member states have integrated coding as part of their curriculum
whilst others are still catching up. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
Government launches Student Placement Programme
Q: What steps has the Control Centre at the MITA Data Centre taken to decrease its carbon footprint? A: In 2008, MITA took the initiative to create a virtualised server platform to reduce the rapidly increasing server carbon footprint within the MITA Data Centre. Once the platform was in place, MITA gained the opportunity to deploy new services within virtual servers instead of the old traditional method of purchasing physical servers for each new service. With the technological advancements in both server hardware and virtualisation software, a single physical server can typically host around 20 virtual machines, thus reducing the carbon footprint of a single server down substantially. Apart from deploying new services in the virtualised platform, MITA also managed to migrate 80 live servers from old physical machines to virtual ones. Q: You mentioned virtualisation, what does this mean in terms of energy? A: The electricity consumption (including cooling costs) of one physical server running 24x7x365 is of roughly €1,000 per year or 4 tonnes of CO2 emissions. MITA immediately managed to reduce energy consumption with the migration of the 80 existing physical servers, this alone amounted to a yearly saving of around €80,000 in energy bills or 320 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Since 2008 the virtualisation platform at MITA has grown rapidly. Today we are hosting some 600 virtual servers on 30 physical hosts. When compared to a 100% physical server environment this translates into an energy saving of over €500,000 each and every year.
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 30 April 2015
educational curriculum: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and the UK (England). In seven countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Portugal and UK [England) it is compulsory for specific levels of education and mainly part of a computer course. The full report can be accessed online at http://bit.ly/ZnlZEC The eSkills Malta Foundation is the local coordinator for the eSkills for Jobs campaign. For more information visit eskills.org.mt
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Open for all employers from all economic sectors Flexible starting date and working hours Maximum reimbursable hours: 330 hours ^ĂůĂƌLJ ĨŝdžĞĚ Ăƚ Φϱ͘ϴϮͬŚŽƵƌ ;ϱϬй ĐŽ-financed by Government) Students bring in energy, fresh ideas and enthusiasm Opportunity to spot talent Recruit extra resources without adding a full-time payroll cost
their requirements with its pool of students and send employers a list of potential candidates. Employers can then conduct interviews with the candidates and select the students they wish to engage. Students, following an ICT or ICT-related course (equivalent to MQF Level 4 and higher) at University, MCAST or at a private
training provider, must apply for a summer placement by Monday, 11th May 2015. Students who are awaiting the results of their ICT or ICT-related A Level or Intermediate or Diploma qualification can also apply. Applications for employers and students are now open online from www.mita.gov.mt/spp