State data centre to start operations with major upgrades by May 2017

The Bengal government is all set to upgrade and expand the infrastructure of its Data Centre, which facilitates the Information Technology-related services of different government departments.

With an estimated investment of Rs 56.64 crore, the state IT department will initiate the project, which is supposed to be ready for operation by May 2017.

The government had set up the state data centre (SDC) in the year 2009-2010 under the national e-governance plan to facilitate the hosting of IT services for different government departments.

E-governance has been one among the core reforms that the Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government has successfully undertaken in the last five years.

Now, most of the state-run services can be opted via e-governance, which is easier, faster and apt.

The SDC plays a leading role in consolidating those services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G (government-to-government), G2C (government-to-citizen) and G2B (government-to-business) services.

These services can be rendered by the states through common delivery platform seamlessly, supported by core connectivity infrastructure such as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and Common Service Centre (CSC), where connectivity extends up to village level.

With these shared service centres, implemented and managed by a competent Data Centre Operator (DCO), individual departments can now focus more on service delivery.

In order to mitigate various risks and to ensure a highly reliable infrastructure, the state IT and Electronics department has initiated the process of expanding and upgrading the data centre with latest and best technologies.

According to government officials, the present infrastructure of the data centre needs to be upgraded keeping in mind the growing needs of various government departments. The upgradation includes having a robust and secure cloud computing platform for seamless maintenance and management of huge government data.

Meanwhile, the state Information and Cultural Affairs department has initiated outbound dialer bulk voice message system and interactive voice response system.