| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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In order to kick start the initiative, a Proof of Concept on virtualization was started in November 2011 by using VMWare and Microsoft Hyper V. The overall capacity for each of the resources was increased to a desirable level which ranged from CPU, RAM, NIC, Licenses, software, etc. For effective operations and management, the Data Center team was provided with necessary trainings.
The benefits of virtualization were achieved after the PoC and soon the next step of moving to complete implementation of Cloud Setup was initiated. The fully operational cloud was commissioned in May 2012. With all the modules of Cloud implemented the stakeholders could realize the value of using shared resources from the State Data Centre. It has surely improved the major constraints of operation with better quality of service, reduced time for infra provisioning and lower cost of hosting.
Microsoft Private Cloud Architecture
Physical Servers – 13
Virtual Machines – 44
Total Applications in production – 37
VMWare Private Cloud Architecture
Physical servers – 40
Virtual Machines – 450
Total Applications in production – 165
Strategy Adopted
(i) The details of base line study done,
Baseline study to setup SDC was carried out by Department of IT, Govt. of India. SDC has been identified as one of the important element of the core infrastructure for supporting e-Governance initiatives of NEGP. SDC acts as mediator and convergence point between open unsecured public domain and sensitive government environment
(ii) Problems identified,
The design of Data Centre represents many challenges and was a complex task as it involves many stakeholders, state department having varying requirements, access mechanisms and delivery channels to the citizens.
(iii) Roll out/implementation model,
Department of IT has given two options to the state to roll out SDC. 1. State and NIC together form a composite team. While sovereign control of the data/application shall be with the state. The physical infrastructure may be outsourced. 2. The state leverages the capability of existing commercial Internet Data Centres for which different Data Centre models were available.
Maharashtra State Data Centre used first option to roll out SDC in the state.
(iv) Communication and dissemination strategy and approach used.):
Communication and disseminations strategy used as follow:
• Periodic Project Reviews
• Customer Review Meetings
• Internal Review Meetings
• Change Management
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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1. SETU as State Implementation Agency
2. M/s Wipro as Data Centre Operator
3. VMWARE as product supplier
4. Microsoft as a product supplier
5. Composite Team as monitoring body
6. DIT, Government of Maharashtra as nodal agency
7. DeiTY, Government of India as a planning body
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Significant efforts have been put by the Department for enablement of the Cloud at Maharashtra State Data Centre. It was envisaged that Government of Maharashtra will use multi-tenanted services, shared and managed by Directorate of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra’s Principal Secretary-IT Mr.Rajesh Aggarwal, the key driving force behind MahaGov Cloud, envisaged providing services to various departments from SDC at the initial stage of SDC implementation. It was envisaged that most of the applications owned by respective Departments and other eGovernance Projects will be hosted on SDC. To cater to a large number of applications and departments, cloud implementation was necessary. Based on the leadership vision, significant effort were put by the Department officers, consultants, OEMs and the Data Centre Operator.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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• During earlier days, each department were required to procure the required ICT infrastructure which had it’s own lead time of approximately 1-2 months. Now, the departments can avail the cloud services as soon as the need arises.
• There has been drastic reduction in time for provisioning of infrastructure. Earlier, for setting up each server used to take 2-3 days which has now reduced to 1-2 hours
• The compute resources are efficiently utilized as and when required.
• The downtime required for maintenance was ranging from several hours depending on the maintenance activity. With implementation of Cloud, the downtime required for maintenance activity has been reduced drastically. For eg. In case of upgradation of CPU/RAM or any other resources earlier the applications were required to be brought down, however, with cloud, the applications/servers can be moved seamlessly without any downtime required.
• It is evident that by mere investment of 2-4 Cr. the potential savings down several years would be approximately 50 Cr.
• The management of the huge infrastructure has been very easy as a unified view is available for the resources.
• Based on the utilization, the resources can be Auto scaled.
• Following project benighted by use of cloud services:
a) RTO project of Autorichshaw Lottery in Mumbai: Completed online project deployed within a weeks time
b) ITI admission throughout state of Maharashtra: More than 20 Crores initial project estimate was completed within 4 Crores. Resources increased/decreased instantly as per load requirement using cloud technology
c) Inspector General revenue generating huge revenue for state of Maharashtra inplimented using cloud technology
d) Land record project for entire state for digitization of data and making online available for citizen using cloud service.
e) More than 165 websites online hosted on cloud platform.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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1) Management takes periodic review of the project progress is monitors at a predefined frequency weekly, monthly, quarterly, six monthly and yearly
2) Dedicated composite team comprises of 6 members from Central Government and State Government look after for the implementation and operations of the project
3) Dedicated TPA (Third party auditor) is in place to perform
a) State Data Centre Infrastructure Audit
b) O& M process and control audit
c) SAL monitoring aidit
d) Security and compliance audit
4) STQC audit is been performed twice in a year as per government standards.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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1) Initial design of SDC was to have entire infrastructure to run on non-virtual environment. It was a difficult task to convince top management to move from non-virtual to virtual environment.
2) Funding for cloud enablement was not envisaged during the initial phase of SDC creation. The management was convinced on how the cloud will eventually reduce the recurring cost for the department. Moreover, it was also appraised that the time taken to implement the Department specific projects would drastically reduce.
3) Adoption of cloud services by government department was a challenging task. The departments were appraised for the potential benefits of the cloud and addressing their concerns which led them to use the cloud services at it’s full potential.
4) Implementation of cloud in a heterogeneous environment was a challenge as multiple stakeholders were involved. The stakeholders were duly appraised on the outcome of the cloud enablement and also involving them for the overall implementation of the cloud lifecycle.
5) There has been typical challenge in terms of awareness about the cloud implementation among the onsite support team. The teams were provided with requisite training on the implementation and maintenance of the cloud.
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