Technology in the Public Sector – Can storage strategy take state departments to the next level?

There is no doubt that the South African government is under increasing pressure to improve service delivery in the wake of President Jacob Zuma’s recently held State of the Nation address, which strongly emphasised the importance of municipal, provincial and national structures as conduits for economic growth and social equality.

Although some departments continue to perform well others are finding process and execution difficult to achieve given the scope of responsibility they are tasked with. Legacy issues and new challenges have now been placed squarely at the feet of newly appointed ministerial teams which are expected to show impressive measurable results before municipal elections take place in 2016.

With this in mind, many partners and vendors alike are asking what role technology can play in this process?

The answer is simple – a significant one. The presence of functioning and properly optimised systems within public structures is absolutely crucial to their ongoing effectiveness. Managing national entities requires technical frameworks that are able to follow procedure while allocating and monitoring tasks and providing dynamic reporting.

Storage is an essential component of the technical mix. State departments that are unable to manage volumes of sensitive information correctly could easily find themselves on the wrong end of a security breach or faced with the inability to perform optimally. One need only recall the South African Police Service’s recent leakage of secretive witness records as a particularly extreme example.

Understanding the impact that storage has on a technical environment is of paramount importance. This requires a framework that allows for end-to-end monitoring and real time analyses. In the absence of these the risk of a catastrophic event occurring is heightened considerably.

If a storage issue does arise it is critical that technical stakeholders are alerted immediately. By introducing thresholds, service level structures and customised dashboards it becomes far easier to overcome obstacles when they present themselves.

Similarly, state entities are also under pressure to reduce overheads and make efficient use of available funding. By optimising storage resources it is possible to reduce the cost imposed by data frameworks while freeing up systems to perform more efficiently. This collaborative process has the potential to significantly reduce IT spend without abandoning the safety and reliability of on premise infrastructure.

Intelligent storage systems also have the capacity to directly improve productivity. If established and managed effectively these frameworks can afford state workers access to important information on the go – improving responsiveness without compromising security.

These are elements that Business Connexion, in partnership with EMC, has taken to heart. As Africa’s leading provider of technical solutions to the public sector the organisation is well equipped to enable service delivery while meeting procurement and financial requirements.