LVX system

Tonight on KARE 11 I heard an exciting report about LVX System base in St. Cloud.  They're installing a lighting/communication system for the City of St. Cloud that also provides a wireless signal allowing computers to pick up an Internet signal and other wireless communication.  It uses LEDs to provide the signal. Cutting edge new idea.

This could be a new power source to receive communications and so much else.  There could be some security issues, but if St. Cloud is using it they must have looked into these issues.

I see this really taking off if they can increase the speeds. Public/Private partnerships to provide this type of service in public buildings or schools would benefit both citizens and this new MN business.

Cool stuff going on by private companies in MN.

Census Data and Public Information Transparency

Now that the Census has announced their findings I'm wondering if money could be made available for Minnesota to apply for. We could then use the funds to migrate state data over so it can be transparent and used in coordination with census information.  This would allow for census information and state information to be used by the public.

This would be a good thing to look into.

Inspirational

Last Thursday Dec 9th I attended the 29th Government IT symposium at the St. Paul River Center. During the conference I attended two workshops on The New Cloud computing agreement between MN and the Office of Enterprise Technology and also a presentation by Cisco on Data Center consolidation.  Both presentations were interesting, informative and I continue to learn more about how MN government can take advantage of technology to improve services to employees and to Citizens. 

I want to thank Terek Tomes for his work on the Microsoft agreement and his presentation to the symposium.  He did an excellent job of outlining how this enterprise wide agreement will benefit the state. He did make it clear that this agreement will cause no layoffs and that it will save millions over the 6 years the agreement is in place.

The keynote speaker for the day was Michael Hingson a 9-11 survivor and much much more.  He ran a small tech company on the 78th Floor of the World Trade Center when it was hit.  He is also a blind man who has overcome more than most and this was just one more incident in his life.  His story was inspiring to all of us who listened.  On the horrific day being blind and having his guide dogs was actually an asset that most of us would not have understood.  When no one around him could see, yet he was able to lead people into safety. 

He spoke about the importance of trusting the team around you.  With trust you know that the others have your back. He trusted the team of workers he hired and he trusted the dog "Roselle" who lead them all to safety.  What a great story.  His book will go on sale soon and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com.

Video interview

My good friend Ann Treacy did a video interview of me last week on government information standards and how broadband can help expand citizen access to data.

I want to thank her for helping me create this blog and providing me with a platform for my ideas.

Thanks Ann

Video on Government Standards

Peace and the internet

Steve Cliff emailed this article by Arianna Huffington.  I thought I would share the link with others.

The article talks about how people in the Middle East are using the Internet and social media to come together and promote peace. If the net can be used by people seeking peace think about how we could better use it to provide government information and to work to bring communities together to share data services.

The post also say that the Middle East is getting wired.  Another reason for broadband so that our children can learn about peace all around the world and teach all of us the importance of learning other cultures and peoples.  One thing it will teach us is we all want peace.

Commission on Service and Innovation

The Legislative Commission on Service and Innovation has been meeting and coming up with preliminary recommendations on how the state can become more efficient, effective and innovative at a time when we are facing huge deficits and large numbers of baby boomers are preparing to retire. Their report is due to the Legislature this January, but they have some draft recommendation now. 

Some of the ideas are based on legislation that was pasted last year in the omnibus State Government bill on transparency of public data. The report does not mention the new law the requirement that OET is to come up with a standardized format so that state public information is more accessible. I hope the Commission will make recommendations to build upon what we have already done.

New RFP for State of Minnesota Data Centers.

On November 4^th the State of Minnesota and the Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) released a request for proposal (RFP) to reduce the number of data centers down from the current 36 to 2-4 data centers in the next five years.  (http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/home.do?agency=OETweb)  There are many reasons to do this from improving security, increasing efficiency, and reducing cost.  States across the country are currently doing this, some with good results and others with problems.  It may be in the states best interest to look at what has happened with others before signing any agreement with an outside vendor to consolidate all of the state’s data in a private sector location.

What are the Facts?

We have 36 data centers located all over the state.  We have some data being stored in small machine rooms and even a few in closets. Many of these are not in a safe place, were not built to house data and don’t meet with basic standards for housing data. It is also not efficient to house so many sites when the cost to heat and cool them is going up. A consulting firm was hired in 2008 to do a study of the state’s data centers.  The study found that our data was at high risk levels and they believed that we could be facing up to 5 “significant failures over the next three years”. (OET, 11/4/2010)

What Now?

Since the report came out OET has been working hard to come up with solutions to reduce risk and save the state some money.  They have looked at completely outsourcing the data center functions, building a new facility to house all of the states data, merging some of the states data centers using current locations, and finding a third party who has a site to house our data.  OET’s RFP has chosen the co-location plan to find an outside business to store our data, yet continue to have State employees oversee and maintain the data. This new facility will house the states most critical data in a high level facility that will insure safety and resiliency.

All of this being said, is it a good idea to do this?

Over the past year I have heard from many people about controversy surrounding this change.  There are professionals who have been working in the data centers who believe that we are not facing as significant of a problem as Excipio has been saying.  There have been a few minor data shut downs all of which have been dealt with quickly with no lose of data.  The State also has some new buildings that could be optimized for better efficiency.  The cost to do this might not make this effective.

Recently Virginia had a data center incident where they had major outages in a number of areas.  Virginia has outsourced there centers to Northrop Grumman a private vendor who specializes in data centers.  Texas has also had problems with some of there vendors. 

Something needs to be done.

Minnesota does have too many data centers and something has to change. This FRP is a good opportunity to look at all that is available and way all the pro’s and cons to make sure the state’s and citizens best interest is being looked after.