Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has launched a project to develop and modernise the infrastructure of its private data centre.
The objective is to enhance the ability of hosting government systems and services, in addition to scaling for future growth in iGA and enhancing the business continuity for government services within the internal cloud computing environment of the authority.
The project comes as part of iGA’s strategy and direction to employ modern and advanced technologies, and harness it in a way that contributes to the development of a society based on data and information. Moreover, the project aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government systems and services by supporting the development process and further reducing operational costs.
Direct response
Through this project the authority aims to enhance direct response during emergency situations via the established Data Centre for disaster recovery, in addition to its development of a national system for backup as part of its continuous efforts to ensure smooth business continuity of the government data network.
Dr Khaled Al-Mutawah, Deputy Chief Executive for Operations & Governanceat iGA affirmed that the launch of this project crystallises the national initiatives, and the economic recovery plan. This is in addition to raising the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of the government services, enhancing its quality and providing it within a safe and sustainable environment, in line with priorities of the government Action Plan, the Economic Recovery Plan and the fiscal balance programme.
Dr Al-Mutawah also explained that with the implementation of this project, Bahrain will be the first country in the region to implement the multi-cloud and hybrid cloud system in the government sector, pointing to several advantages achieved as a result of activating this project. Some of the benefits are the provision and creation of an internal environment through which the systems are hosted as services in the internal cloud computing environment of iGA's data centre (Private Hosting) managed by iGA's team, while the role of the company, VMware, will be limited to carrying out the modernisation of the centre's infrastructure, supervising its operation, and performing periodic maintenance.
Great impact
He stressed that this would have a great impact of achieving this in maintaining business continuity and ensuring its operation and 99.9% availability of government systems, especially in periods of emergencies and disasters, as well as reducing operational costs.
Saif Mashat, General Manager of VMware in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen said: “The infrastructure modernisation project for the authority’s data center to host government systems in partnership with “VMware” confirms the power of multi-cloud and its ability to enhance innovation in the government services sector through the use of hardware and technical equipment with high efficiency, providing unprecedented levels of flexibility and innovation. We at VMware look forward to working with the Information & eGovernment Authority, in order to ensure business continuity, especially in times of emergencies and disasters, as well as reduce operational costs."-- TradeArabia News Service