Online Reporter
Emmanuel Kafe
THE upgrading of Zimbabwe’s national cloud infrastructure to improve the reliability and efficiency of Government digital services has commenced.
The initiative is expected to address frequent disruptions in services caused by outdated server systems and inadequate data centre facilities.
Responding to questions from The Sunday Mail, Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera said the Government will establish a new Tier 4 data centre, which will meet international standards for uptime and efficiency.
In this context, a data centre is a facility where the Government stores, processes and manages its digital information and services.
It houses powerful computers (servers) and other IT infrastructure that enable the Government to run its online platforms, store data and provide digital services to the public and its departments.
A Tier 4 data centre, also known as a 4 Tier data centre, is the highest standard for data centres, representing the most reliable, secure and fault-tolerant level of infrastructure for hosting and managing IT systems.
The centre will ensure that Government digital platforms, including email and communication services, have an availability rate of over 99,999 percent, meaning minimal downtime.
“We are currently working on upgrading our national cloud infrastructure and implementing redundancy measures, which means we are ensuring that there is high availability of these services,” said Minister Mavetera.
“We have already identified the site which will host additional equipment, in line with this upgrade, and together with the e-Government Technology Unit, we are focused on establishing a renewed national data centre infrastructure — specifically, a 4 Tier data centre.
“Our goal is to complete this project by the end of the year.”
President Mnangagwa has directed the Government to urgently digitise its departments and enhance official digital communication services such as email systems.
Minister Mavetera said there were challenges with the current server system, including outdated systems and disruptions caused by unreliable data centre networking and power systems.
However, the upgrade will address these issues by adding state-of-the-art servers, cooling systems and advanced monitoring tools.
“The Government Internet Service Provider (GISP) will be supporting this initiative,” she added.
“On challenges, we have encountered issues with our current servers, where at times due to one issue or another, we experience downtime.
“This has affected our Government digitalisation efforts.
“Our hope is that once we have all the necessary equipment in place, including servers, cooling, environment management and monitoring systems, they will be hosted at the expanded national data centre.”
Meanwhile, Minister Mavetera said 10 Government ministries had migrated their websites to the more secure .gov domain as part of a broader effort to establish a secure and trustworthy online presence for Government entities while expediting the digitisation of public services.
“As part of the ongoing digital transformation, at least 10 Government ministry websites have already been migrated to the .gov domain, marking a significant step towards a fully integrated digital public service,” she said.
“Our work as a ministry is to design and set up the websites and it is the work of GISP to then host these websites, which we are making sure we are speeding up the process.”
A .gov domain is a top-level domain reserved for use by governments. It is a unique identifier that indicates a website or email address is affiliated with a government entity.
She said the latest migration from Google email (Gmail) and .zw domains to .gov domains is a step towards efforts to establish a more secure, authentic and trustworthy online presence for Government ministries and departments.
