KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Data Centre Upgrade Project being undertaken at eGov Jamaica Limited is now in its final stage.

This was revealed by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Programme Manager at the Transformation Implementation Unit (TIU), Luke Jackson.

The project, which began in 2020, forms part of the public sector transformation programme, being managed by the TIU.

It seeks to establish a modern data centre with the necessary capacity and infrastructure, to provide resilient and efficient hosting of enterprises and shared services of the Government of Jamaica.

The upgrade also aims to facilitate future pursuits of the Government in rationalising and consolidating data centres and related services on to the platform, at eGov Jamaica.

“We have pretty much wrapped up all the significant upgrades and renovation of the physical space –that is like power and cooling –and expanded their information technology capacity, meaning that they have gotten a lot more storage inside,” Jackson said.

He further noted that eGov Jamaica has been provided with additional cloud infrastructure and all the automated management tools and security components that are needed to operate a modern data centre.

“The next phase is to move forward in a more purposeful way with the consolidation effort, that is to engage with ministries, departments and agencies to say, we need to arrange now to move your data into the data centre,” the ICT programme manager added.

Jackson informed that there are several benefits to be derived from the data centre upgrade project.

“When you are able to have an expanded and upgraded government data centre, you are able to consolidate the disparate data centres across government into one location where you can apply consistent management and critical kind of security, that will make everybody comfortable that their data is secure and kept private,” the ICT programme manager stated.

He cited a reduction in utility and maintenance cost and the ability to implement a more robust business continuity and disaster recovery plan, among the benefits of having a centralised data centre.

The Data Centre Upgrade Project is expected to be completed by January 2024.

– JIS