State consolidates servers, security

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/0930/web-nc-10-02-02.asp

By Dibya Sarkar 
Oct. 2, 2002

Ensuring that North Carolina's information technology systems don't
succumb to any interruptions, the state government is undertaking data
server consolidation to bolster network security as well as save
costs, according to its chief information officer.

George Bakolia, who took over the CIO reins this spring, said he's
anticipating "significant savings" by reducing the number of servers
across the state government by "at a minimum 50 to 60 percent."

"And that really trickles right into network security because of our
inability and lack of resources to keep up with the continuous
patching of our systems attached to our network," he said. "And then
we can also reduce the cost on the maintenance and the procurement
processes, so if we can do that, we can shift some of those funds
toward the other aspects."

Data server consolidation also helps the state deploy and use IT
employees more effectively, he said, noting the shortage of government
IT workers nationwide.

Another initiative is creating a security zone architecture for all
mission-critical applications related to North Carolina's portal
(www.ncgov.com).

"Basically, we've taken the network architecture a step further,"  
Bakolia said. "We have defined levels of security within the network
basically within [server] farms — we call it zones — and in there we
would house certain applications based on how critical and sensitive
they are. We began about eight months ago."

Not unlike other states facing severe or considerable budget crunches,
North Carolina has to do more with less. Bakolia, who previously was
the N.C. Justice Department's CIO, said the government's IT budget has
been reduced by $20 million. That means no new large projects unless
the legislature commits funds to them, he said.

"But I really think that if we target areas of efficiencies, we get
more than enough to suffice," he said.

Data server consolidation is one of a handful of initiatives Bakolia
is spearheading.

He is promoting an effort he started at the state Justice Department
that entailed creating a blueprint of applications within legacy
systems and translating lines of code into a more modern computer
language, such as Java.

"There's other mission-critical entities across state government like
transportation, human services and revenue [that] have the same type
of problem where they have vintage applications from the '70s that all
the citizens of the state are relying on that nobody has even
addressed," he said. "We're looking at millions of lines of code, and
my research so far has been showing that the agencies are getting
lower and lower in their skill expertise to maintain those systems."

Another application he's promoting is a common payment service.

"We're enabling the private sector and state government to do
automated transaction handling with credit cards and things like that
through a common payment system," Bakolia said. "And that could add
significant savings to the state. It's running in production. We put
it in place as of probably about a year ago. But we're trying to
expand on that."
 

 

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