NDMA acquires advanced storage system for government agencies – Government services online one step closer

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DPI, GUYANA, Tuesday, April 24, 2018

The push to have several government services available online has taken a major step forward. Government agencies now have access to the recently acquired government cloud, which will ensure they have the required computing and storage resources necessary for the fulfillment of the government’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and e-governance mandate.

Floyd Levi, Chairman of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) today said that the ‘G’ Cloud is a relatively new technology to Guyana and possibly the first cloud of its size to be installed locally.

Given the magnitude of ICT services being rolled out by the government, the requisite infrastructure must be in place to assist in the delivery, the NDMA Chairman noted.

“The cloud, actually allows us to give, on demand, to government agencies servers and storage locations as they need it, so rather than an agency having to go to one of the vendors to buy a server, they can actually contact the NDMA and within a matter of an hour or two they get the server from within our local cloud,” Levi said.

He pointed out that agencies no longer have to go through a procurement process, which takes a number of months or expend huge sums to purchase the servers.

The cloud, the Chairman explained is a collection of virtual servers with high capabilities, from which the NDMA is able to create more servers.  Agencies can request from the Authority, the size of the server they wish to acquire.

The ‘G’ cloud is stored at the data centre at the NDMA.

This is part of the Coalition administration’s plan of making available, all government services such as passport and birth certificate applications accessible online to citizens.

Further, Levi said the e-services component, which is currently in the first phase will allow citizens to request the government service of their choosing and fill out the applications online.

However, while payment will initially have to be done at the respective government offices, plans are afoot for this to be done via the internet as well. “Once it is done online, the form and its contents would be directed to the government agency that is responsible for delivering that service.”

Levi disclosed that the NDMA has catalogued over 200 services and is in the final stage of user acceptance testing of the government portal described as “a one- stop shop where all of government services can be accessed.”

The service will be launched in late May.

Cloud Storage is a service where data is remotely maintained, managed, and backed up. It allows the users to store files online, so that they can access them from any location via the Internet. Businesses and organisations are known to reduce annual operating costs by using cloud storage.

 

By: Stacy Carmichael