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The Malta Independent | Thursday 15 October 2015
The decision to divert to a virtualised consolidated infrastructure by Government - Why
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obert Galea is MITA’s Head of the Infrastructure Services Department, responsible for MITA’s (and Government’s) ICT infrastructure, including Government’s Wide Area Network, the Virtual Platforms, Servers, Operating Systems & Databases, Internet and Web Hosting Services and Technical Projects, both internal to MITA and for Government’s CIOs He joined MITA 23 years ago as an Operator at the Control Centre. His department has a total of fifty IT professionals whose roles vary among Technical Services Officers, Solution Architects, Enterprise Architects, Service Managers and Project Managers. . In this interview, Robert explains the importance of MITA’s shift to a consolidated infrastructure, which contributed to a significant costsaving for the Agency. What was the system previously used and why was it deemed necessary to shift to a consolidated infrastructure? Originally, MITA’s server and storage infrastructure was the opposite of what it is today. When the organisation started off as MSU, each Ministry and its respective directorates had their own Data Centres with their own servers and storage. This meant having around 23 different mini Data Centres located in each Ministry and most large Departments. The cost of operating these mini Data Centres, both in terms of infrastructure requirements and human resources was
becoming substantial and unsustainable; a more cost effective approach was necessary. As one has come to appreciate, ICT systems change and evolve according to the technological era and exigencies of a continually maturing market. It was necessary for MITA to change with the trends and more demanding client requirements, therefore its direction was to invest in a consolidated Data Centre solution. Those familiar with the subject know that the aim of a consolidated system is to have one centralised shared infrastructure solution, to exploit the benefits of economies of scale and cost efficiencies and effectiveness. Trends from MSU days in the 1990s and after the millennium drastically changed and so did MITA’s vision. The idea was to have a common shared infrastructure, where a single platform would host a number of different systems. Examples of this are, all Government emails, file sharing systems and a large number of business applications such as SABS (a system for social security), IHIS (the integrated health information system), VERA (a system for Transport Malta), IRD and VAT, among many others. This also meant having far less servers and storage solutions for the same number of systems., consequently reducing Data Centre power and cooling consumption (a considerable cost to operate any Data Centre), and floor space, apart from capital costs for the servers themselves and their software licences. What was the factor that drove MITA to opt of having a consolidated infrastructure? Competition within the ICT industry is always present, with industry players advancing technology and lowering prices. In order to continue to provide value for money to Government, MITA had no option but to invest and change its modus operandi. Changing a system completely involved in-depth research, preparation and a good doze of hard
work. Eventually, it was decided by the Agency that the most viable option was that of having a consolidated infrastructure as this brought reduction of costs and also operation simplicity. The first step was to physically upgrade the Data Centre at MITA’s Head Office at Gattard House and also, to upgrade the Government Wide Area Network, MAGNET, as a precursor to ‘moving’ the applications from the distributed data centres to the central data centre. In parallel MITA also built and commissioned a second Data Centre for Disaster recovery purposes. When MITA’s Data Centre at St. Venera was built, all infrastructure and storage where eventually transferred there. The entire exercise was a huge endeavour that required a number of separate but related projects to ensure all was in place to facilitate the centralisation and consolidation initiative. .. The actual works for procurement, tender drafting, evaluation and award started in 2005, a process that took over a year to complete. We continually invest to modernise our infrastructure through technology refreshes to ensure we have the most cost effective solutions that add value to Government. What are the advantages of having such a system? The most logical advantage is that now MITA has one centralised server and storage infrastructure (spread across two data centres), which means greater efficiencies through maximising economies of scale. As an example, the latest major technology refresh of this server and storage consolidated infrastructure, carried out late last year and concluded in June of this year, will result in a net saving, on a like-for-like-basis, of one million (1,000,000) Euro per annum for the next seven years. The new server and storage infrastructure has many features added to it and is deemed more reliable and available. It has been tried and tested and its performance is evaluated as being much
better. This can be compared to replacing an old computer for a new one. For example, a technical feature offered by the new storage system is data deduplication - this reduces the amount of storage space needed to store data. As you can imagine, servers often contain duplicate copies of many pieces of data. For example, the same file may be saved by different people in different places, and files that are not identical may still include much of the same data. Deduplication eliminates these extra copies by saving just one copy of the data and replacing the other copies with pointers that lead back to the original copy.. This feature alone has meant that we freed up a lot of storage space. Another major ‘game changer’ was the introduction of virtualisation a few years ago. Presently MITA hosts close to 600 virtualised servers. In fact, July marked a major milestone were for the first time we now host more virtual servers than physical. In brief, virtualisation offers the possibility to host more than one (virtual) server on a physical server – typically we host around 15 virtual servers on one physical server.
What were the challenges in shifting to a consolidated server and storage infrastructure? The first challenge was to design, procure and build the appropriate solution. By appropriate I mean with the right security, functionality, performance and reliability. However, I would say that the main challenge was the migration process. Can you imagine shifting huge amounts of data from differ-
ent systems to one centralised infrastructure? We are talking about critical and sensitive data, such as emails, Government documents or files health applications and patient data such as X-rays, tax information, etc. Transferring all data without disturbing the end users was the challenge. This involved long hours of work by the entire team. Before transferring any data, we invested in countless hours in testing by simulating data migrations. The whole process varies from one application to another. One application might require a couple of hours, whilst another, more complex application, would be require over a couple of weeks to migrate. Were other options considered instead of the consolidated storage and server infrastructure hosted ast MITA’s two Data Centres? Yes, we did consider the Cloud, however, to date, MITA’s policy is that all production data, Government documents, patients data, IRD and VAT records, etc. are to be hosted on MITA’s premises and not in the Cloud. At this stage the ‘on premises option’ is viewed as being the most secure and cost effective option for Government’s applications. What are the plans for the future and how is MITA intending to modernise the process? In line with Government’s Digital Malta strategy, and fully supported by Government, we will continue to invest in our infrastructure. In the coming years we will grow and maximise our investment in the flexible and scalable consolidated virtualised server and storage infrastructure, as this has been designed to offer a degree of future proofing. We will continue to assess the ICT industry and market trends to match these to Government’s growing and changing requirements – with the aim of always offering the best value for money solutions.
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 15 October 2015
MITA Communications and PR Team
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
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n recent years Government radically changed its infrastucture system – that to a consolidation system. This edition features and interview with Robert Galea, MITA’s Head of the Infrastructure Services Department, where
he gives a detail review of why Government opted for this innovative system. This edition gives review to an event organised by MITA as part of the celebrations of its 25th anniversary. Health and education were among the top subjects discussed
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in the workshop which targeted representatives from the Businesses and Government organisations. This article will highlight what the general public and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) suggested in these area matters: digital education, eHealth, eCommerce and eGovernment. Digital Education Evaluating the pros and cons Digital education was mentioned as an evolving sector which provides opportunities and lifelong education. Hence it was suggested that online courses could be offered. Contributors insisted that emphasis should be on education, whilst digital technology should
be seen as a tool to educate. A number of concerns were also brought up during the discussion about the introduction of digital technology in schools. These were as follows: • Are the tools provided this year going to be relevant next year? • Is it feasible to introduce digital tools such as tables in schools, only to be obsolete in a few years? • Do we have resources to update or replace these tools when broken • Are these tools used appropriately, are they used to learn or only as a means of entertainment? • Are teachers instructed in using these tools? • Does this technology aid or hin-
der human communication and learning basic skills?
language or time spent on computers, tablets, mobiles.
The conclusion is that there should be a balance between the education system and today’s lifestyle. Throughout the decades there have been technology updates and hence a cultural change: different generations had different teaching tools but the aim is the same. Hence, teachers and parents should keep themselves updated about new technology to better assist and teach their children. Courses should be tailormade for teachers to understand and learn how to use the technology. Adults have the responsibility to teach children to use the technology properly and more effectively: be it for correct use of
eHealth - the border line eHealth services are offered to citizens primarily through the use of the myHealth portal. Through this service both citizens and professionals are able to access their electronic case summaries, entitlements and results, once released by the doctor. Services related to health are also the eForms, like for example, the application of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). As for the above, there were 2 opposing arguments, one reiterating that citizens should always be allowed to view their results, irrespective of their doctors, whilst others argued that this could be
All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
MITA celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a Bash M
alta Information Technology Agency (MITA) last week organised a Bash as part of its 25th Anniversary celebrations. This year the agency organised several events to commemorate such an important date to mark its achievements in the evolving sector of technology The bash was an opportunity for ex employees to reunite with their ex colleagues. The event was an another occasion for both parties to share fond memories where they contributed to what is now known as MITA, but previously was named MSU and MITTS respectively. MITA’s Chairman, Tony Sultana welcomed the considerable number of ex-employees which attended the event, and he showed his appreciation for their contribution in their area of expertise, to form MITA to what it is today. As part of the event, MITA employees who are collection enthusiasts, set up an exhibition portraying their various items.
Improving ICT measures in health, education among others alta’s ICT vision is built on the hard work of various professionals contributing to making Digital Malta a reality, by offering tangible solutions to turn Malta into a digitally-enabled nation, in all sectors of society. Part of the groundwork consists in consulting different stakeholders, mainly, Government officials, businessmen and the general public for any feedback on already set proposed ideas, or, to put forward any ideas which they might have to be included in the Digital Malta Programme Initiatives of the following year. Digital Malta held two workshops. Last week’s article gave an overview of what was suggested
during the second workshop organised by Digital Malta. The article gives an idea of what was proposed by NGOs and the general public.
somewhat dangerous. The reason given to this was that a doctor at times needs to explain the results and not leave it to unqualified citizens to read, as results could be misinterpreted. Something which did not pass unnoticed was the fact that not all GPs were using the online system, and this is leading to a non appropriate service. Citizens’ view is that having all doctors using the system would mean having every patient’s recorded. This would also prevent any doctor from prescribing medicines which are not compatible with the patient. This lead to the discussion whether for technology to be used more efficiently, and whether regulation about ownership of data should be changed. Citizens em-
phasised that patients should be made aware of what services are available to them. eGovernment The effort made by Government to improve the eGovernment services was recognized. The gov.mt platform offers over 2,000 eforms, different services from different departments. This is now being complemented by mGov services, meaning, services offered on mobile phones and tablets. The reason for the low intake of use of eGovernment services was due to the complexity of the eID registration, an issue which now has been resolved. NGOs present at the workshop suggested that there should be an initiative to assist them and im-
prove their web presence as well as web mentoring. eCommerce Even if the discussion on eCommerce was somewhat more general, those participating in the workshop proposed an online service for professionals, such as accountants. This would serve to entice their clients make use of them. The rest of the discussion was about eCommerce trends in Malta, whereby it was stated that local online shopping is not quite popular since most consumers shop online from foreign. One of the reasons for this according to citizens is that online sites are not user-friendly for online shopping.