{"id":28501,"date":"2023-06-22T23:35:53","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T04:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=28501"},"modified":"2023-06-22T18:35:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T23:35:35","slug":"does-the-government-need-a-new-data-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/does-the-government-need-a-new-data-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the government need a new data centre?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trinidad and Tobago<\/p>\n

In March, the government, through iGovTT, invited tenders for a proposed Tier 4 data centre facility at Phoenix Park Industrial Estate.<\/p>\n

Trinidad and Tobago has at least five working data centres.<\/p>\n

Getting a response to questions on the matter took more than a month, as the query was bounced from the procurement agency, iGovTT, to the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MoDT).<\/p>\n

The formal statement, in an email signed by Kemba Moses-Henry, Business Operations Assistant II of the ministry\u2019s Engagement and Behavioural Communications Unit stated, \u201cThis data centre is required to service the immediate requirements for current digital transformation programmes and projects, and to support the long-term digitalisation vision for significantly enhanced resiliency and security for all government digital solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is it necessary to build another facility from scratch? Why not co-locate government servers in existing facilities pending an upgrade of those facilities to Tier 4 status?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s digital transformation agenda is highly focused on services to citizens and the proper management and handling of government and user data. As such, there is the conviction that the need for the government to own and manage its own data centre and associated technology to support those use-cases with highly sensitive or confidential datasets.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the specifications that separates Tier 3 status from Tier 4 is the provision of electricity from two different suppliers. Trinidad and Tobago has only one, TTEC, and changing that requires an act of Parliament.<\/p>\n

The prospectus for the MoDT project includes a solar park capable of producing 500 kilowatts of electricity. Will the government generate its own electricity for the facility in defiance of law?<\/p>\n

A caveat in the published prospectus for the proposed data centre, notes that the project must have, \u201cAt a minimum Tier 3 certification at the point of commissioning if the elements for Tier 4 are not available within the timeline specified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acknowledging the importance of the government retaining substantive control of sensitive national data, TSTT noted in a response to questions, that it has the only data centre in the Caribbean and Latin America with both TIA 942-B Rated 3 certification for infrastructure and DCOS maturity level 3 for operations.<\/p>\n

Other data centre facilities run by Flow, AirLink and Fujitsu function at a minimum of Tier 2. Digicel announced plans for a\u00a0Tier 3 facility<\/a>\u00a0in 2015.<\/p>\n

Data centre certifications are a swamp land of acronyms, but the critical difference between Tier 3 and Tier 4 comes down to redundancy and uptime.<\/p>\n

The strategic deployment of duplicate power sources, components and cooling systems raise the reliability of a data centre from 99.982% availability at Tier 3 to 99.995 availability at Tier 4.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the difference between service recovery times of 1.6 hours and 26.3 minutes annually. The largely theoretical Tier 5 sets annual downtime at 5.3 minutes.<\/p>\n

Tier 4 facilities have no single point of failure. The specification requires a duplicate, active version of every component in the data centre. That makes Tier 4 specified data centres as much as 50 per cent more expensive to build.
\nTSTT\u2019s TIA 942-B Rated 3 data centre currently offers this concurrently maintainable site infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cTSTT\u2019s data centre services have grown exponentially over the years, to the extent that we have embarked on projects that add capacity to both our colocation services and our cloud portfolio,\u201d the company explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis increase in capacity is readily available to the Government and can be used immediately to ensure that there are no delays in the Ministry of Digital Transformation\u2019s digital citizen road map and other key projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MoDT explained in its response that it plans public\/private sector partnerships that will include the integration of local third-party data centres to support the expansion of its services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will result in a general increase in the utilisation of all existing Data Centres and is not limited to Tier 3 Data Centres; the intention being that they will remain and grow,\u201d the MoDT stated.<\/p>\n

The Digital Transformation Ministry has specified a six-month project completion timeline after acceptance of a tender.<\/p>\n

Some very rough calculations.<\/p>\n

A 500Kw solar farm built to commercial standards costs around US$1 million.<\/p>\n

Costs for Tier 4 data centre construction run to US$25,000 per Kw, suggesting an estimate of US$12.5 million for the proposed facility.<\/p>\n

TSTT described itself as excited by the government\u2019s planned data centre.
\n\u201cTSTT stands ready and available to leverage our wealth of knowledge in the data centre and telecoms field to ensure that the national data dentre is unmatched both locally and regionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

TSTT is 51 per cent owned by government, which has, in practical terms, complete oversight of its operations. Competitor Liberty Global\u2019s 49 per cent share is silent and uncompensated, pending the sale of those shares (https:\/\/bit.ly\/3N993xo).<\/p>\n

Eight years later, no buyer has emerged, leaving the organisation in Janus\u2019 dilemma, one face toward its state owner, the other to its commercial responsibility to deliver stakeholder returns.<\/p>\n

Is it time to remove this Chinese curtain of divided purpose before spending more than $100 million to create a data centre that already exists?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 pexels-markus-spiske<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trinidad and Tobago In March, the government, through iGovTT, invited tenders for a proposed Tier 4 data centre facility at Phoenix Park Industrial Estate. Trinidad and Tobago has at least…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":28502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250],"tags":[143,288,137],"class_list":["post-28501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-ict","tag-technology","tag-trinidad-and-tobago"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/pexels-markus-spiske-2004161-scaled-e1687476835869.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-7pH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28252,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/ngc-says-it-e-auction-tool-saves-ministry-of-education-millions\/","url_meta":{"origin":28501,"position":0},"title":"NGC says it e-auction tool saves Ministry of Education millions","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"June 8, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica he National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) says its collaboration with the National Information and Communication Technology Company Limited (iGovTT), is assisting the Ministry of Education to save millions of dollars in a recent laptop procurement exercise, through the use of a \"Reverse Auction\" on NGC\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/pexels-katerina-holmes-5905918-scaled-e1686263890157.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/pexels-katerina-holmes-5905918-scaled-e1686263890157.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/pexels-katerina-holmes-5905918-scaled-e1686263890157.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/pexels-katerina-holmes-5905918-scaled-e1686263890157.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4408,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/govt-moves-towards-e-tendering\/","url_meta":{"origin":28501,"position":1},"title":"Govt moves towards e-tendering","author":"Michele Marius","date":"February 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"STATE agencies TSTT and iGovTT, jointly hosted a breakfast ceremony for about 100 guests at the Hyatt Regency Port of Spain yesterday to celebrate the signing of a memorandum of understanding between them for e-tendering services. Ironically, even though the MoU is intended to make the procurement process for government\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/hands-desk-office-working-mouse-Skitterphoto-Pexels.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/hands-desk-office-working-mouse-Skitterphoto-Pexels.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/hands-desk-office-working-mouse-Skitterphoto-Pexels.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/hands-desk-office-working-mouse-Skitterphoto-Pexels.jpg?fit=1024%2C678&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4953,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/bmobiles-e-tender-platform-welcomed-as-an-improvement-to-public-sector-procurement\/","url_meta":{"origin":28501,"position":2},"title":"bmobile’s e-Tender Platform welcomed as an improvement to Public Sector Procurement","author":"Michele Marius","date":"March 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"On February 2nd, bmobile signed a historical memorandum of understanding\u00a0(MoU) with the National Information and Communication Technology Company Limited (iGovTT), the state enterprise responsible for the provision of ICT consulting and support services to Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Trinidad and Tobago. The landmark MoU will allow all 22\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Log-in-register-window-button-achinverma-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C670&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Log-in-register-window-button-achinverma-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C670&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Log-in-register-window-button-achinverma-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C670&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Log-in-register-window-button-achinverma-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C670&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22202,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/moonilal-calls-for-cctv-probe\/","url_meta":{"origin":28501,"position":3},"title":"Moonilal calls for CCTV probe","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"May 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Trinidad and Tobago OPPOSITION Member of Parliament, Dr Roodal Moonilal, is calling on the Government to undertake an independent investigation into the procurement by the Ministry of National Security of an upgrade to the current national closed-circuit television (CCTV) network. \u201cI am now calling for an independent investigation outside of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-ju%CC%88rgen-jester-4497236-scaled-e1652989745287.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-ju%CC%88rgen-jester-4497236-scaled-e1652989745287.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-ju%CC%88rgen-jester-4497236-scaled-e1652989745287.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-ju%CC%88rgen-jester-4497236-scaled-e1652989745287.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22000,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/cctv-contract-blocked\/","url_meta":{"origin":28501,"position":4},"title":"CCTV CONTRACT BLOCKED","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"May 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Trinidad and Tobago \u00a0 CABINET has stopped the award of a contract for a national CCTV (closed-circuit television) network in Trinidad and Tobago to Irish-owned telecommunications provider Digicel, and referred the evaluation and its outcome to new Attorney General Reginald Armour. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley made this disclosure to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-possessed-photography-11028886-scaled-e1651713140337.jpg?fit=1024%2C693&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-possessed-photography-11028886-scaled-e1651713140337.jpg?fit=1024%2C693&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-possessed-photography-11028886-scaled-e1651713140337.jpg?fit=1024%2C693&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-possessed-photography-11028886-scaled-e1651713140337.jpg?fit=1024%2C693&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21774,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/young-confident-new-laws-will-improve-trinidad-and-tobagos-corruption-ranking\/","url_meta":{"origin":28501,"position":5},"title":"Young confident new laws will improve Trinidad and Tobago’s corruption ranking","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"April 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Trinidad and Tobago \u00a0 Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young says he is optimistic that Trinidad and Tobago's global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking will improve during the next annual report to reflect the work done by the government in implementing legislation to improve transparency and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Law-scrabble-tiles-CQF-Avocat-Pexels-e1649276824460.jpeg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Law-scrabble-tiles-CQF-Avocat-Pexels-e1649276824460.jpeg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Law-scrabble-tiles-CQF-Avocat-Pexels-e1649276824460.jpeg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Law-scrabble-tiles-CQF-Avocat-Pexels-e1649276824460.jpeg?fit=1024%2C684&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28508,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28501\/revisions\/28508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}