The shifting of the Information Technology (IT) related infrastructure from the old secretariat complex to the new secretariat at Burgula Ramakrishna Rao Bhavan is nearing completion.
The facilities like the Secretariat Campus Network, State Wide Area Network and the command and control centre for the video-conferencing facility is likely to be completed by December 15. The IT department had successfully shifted the three network operating centres pertaining to the key IT infrastructure to the new building and is now in the process of shifting the main equipment.
“Several of the key functions are based on legacy equipment which has to be replaced,” a senior official said. The department had accordingly forwarded a proposal seeking sanction of ₹15 crore for setting up an exclusive Local Area Network connectivity at the new location but it did not get the government’s nod as yet.
Accordingly, the departments in the BRKR Bhavan are currently provided internet connectivity through home range BSNL broadband as a temporary measure and the department was engaged in doing away with more than a decade-old network salvaging whatever is useful. The shifting, in the normal course, would have taken nothing more than a week, but the presence of legacy equipment had prolonged the process as the department had to set up foolproof uninterrupted network.
Moreover, the delay in shifting of the equipment from the old premises was attributed to the absence of a firewall mechanism at the new premises to ensure that concerns over the vulnerability of the network are addressed at the time of its setting up itself.
“We have now put in place a state of the art security system with several firewalls,” the official told The Hindu . The department, in the process, had spent close to ₹ 70 lakh for establishing effective mechanism to avoid scope for any interference from outside.
