DOI: 10.5897/IJLIS12.030
ISSN 2141–2537 ©2013 Academic Journals http://www.academicjournals.org/IJLIS
International Journal of Library and Information
Science
Review
Converged data centres-library model (CDC-LM):
Enhances implementation of Government or
e-Governance systems in the sub-Saharan region
Jameson Mbale
University of Namibia, Centre of Excellence in Telecommunications (CoE), Department of Computer Science, Namibia. Accepted 14 February, 2013
This work envisaged the application technologies of two entities: Data centres and Libraries to build and implement a workable e-Governance or e-Government system. Therefore, this paper introduced the Converged data centre-library model (CDC-LM) which merged the two entities in order to implement an e-Governance or e-Government system. The CDC-LM provided wider resource coverage with the capacity to access relevant information from ministries, NGO’s and industry. If a citizen applied to buy a plot from the Ministry of Lands, CDC-LM had capabilities of gathering information through the Internet from all the relevant sources such as the applicant’s name, passport number and police clearance from Ministry of Home affairs; employee-number, job and employer from Ministry of Local Government; date-of-birth and sex/gender from Ministry of Health; marital-status from Ministry of Justice; salary from Ministry of Finance; payment from Banks; application number, plot size, plot area and application status from Ministry of Lands.
Key words: Converged data centre-library model (CDC-LM), e-Governance, e-Government, ministries, industry, infrastructure, data back-up, power-backup, disaster recovery centre.
INTRODUCTION
Many countries in the sub-Saharan region have been trying to build either e-Governance or e-Government systems over the past eight to twelve years but with little success. Other efforts were made to build data centres to store multiple sources of data, but this resulted in data storage specific to that of the single firm’s applications. Such data was not diversified and was only confined to the operations of that individual company’s business. A survey carried out recently, showed that Libraries have some experience in storing a variety of data types, such as: scientific, geospatial, electronic books, periodicals, video cassettes, radio cassettes, online maps, DVDs, etc. These results suggest that one solution would be to merge the implementations of the Library with those of the data centres. Therefore, the converged data centre
with libraries model (CDC-LM), a multi-integrated system which merges all the information from all sources was envisaged. The converged data centre would be built along with the Library to utilize the latter’s capacity to store multi-data and disseminate to the users. The converged component would be linked to all the resource providers such as the Government, non-Governmental organizations (NGOs), line ministries, industry and ISPs. These resource suppliers may use a number of technologies for connectivity, such as wired broadband, narrow band, wireless broadband and mobile broadband. Statement of the problem
The effort to build an e-Governance or e-Government E-mail: [email protected].
system in the sub-Saharan region was taken as a priority by a number of African nations, with some taking twelve or more years to build the Governance or e-Government systems. To date, none of the sub-Saharan nations has managed to achieve this goal and in spite of the emergence of data centres, dissemination of information or data was still not adequately handled.
According to Valentine (2004), Allen et al. (2001), UNPA and ASPA (2001) and OECD (2002), they pointed out that the potential for e-Government in developing countries remains largely unexploited. This has also lead to the failure of the planned Governance or e-Government systems to deliver services to the community as these systems lacked useful information from all appropriate institutions. Isolated data centres from various companies may be storing data which was not adequate to be used to run either the e-Governance or e-Government systems, thereby failing to connect all kinds of information from Government to Ministries to Industries, to NGO’s to ISP’s. The proposed solution would make use of the functionalities of the Library facilities and resources to have data centres’ data disseminated to all relevant users. The Library from its inception was used to store different kinds of data. In this era, Libraries have advanced to such an extent that they were now capable of storing electronic information such as geospatial, scientific, periodicals and others.
Both the Libraries and data centres stored information. The only difference was that data centres store informa-tion tailored for a particular application, that is the weather information, etc., whereas the Library keeps different kinds of data. This ability and capacity of storing hetero-geneous data was exploited to influence data centres to hold all kinds of data from all institutions such as the Government, line ministries, industries, NGO’s, ISPs, etc. In addition, the experience of the Library personnel to handle heterogeneous data could be used in the data centres. The experience of Library workers to refresh, constantly add new electronic data, weed old information, etc. would be advantageous in the converged data centres. In this way, the information from the converged data centres would be equally refreshed, added, weeded, etc., as was the case from the Libraries. The searching skills of materials done in the Libraries would also be similarly transferred to the converged data centres.
RELATED WORK
The three factors that have been identified as the key infrastructure required to build either the e-Governance or e-Government systems were architecture, connectivity and data centres. A lot of work has been going on to build data centres that were used to store and operate on the data tailored for a specific application such as weather focus statistics, as earlier discussed.
Davis (2009) described data centre as an ecosystem-
an environment where all elements must function together. The author points out that companies such as Microsoft®, Switch®, and Digital Realty Trust™ view data centres holistically and not as a sum of its subsystems. These world-class operators of large data centres integrated the following in the systems to monitor and control their applications: power monitoring and control, building management, security and access control, white space management, computerized maintenance mana-gement, network operations centre, access control and video security, lighting monitoring and control, electrical switchgear monitoring and control, power metering, and power-quality monitoring generators, UPS battery backup-power, and fuel-level and tank-leak monitoring, computer room air conditioners (CRAC) and in-row AC alarm monitoring and set-point control, early warning smoke and fire detection monitoring, computer room PDUs and UPSs. These were perceived as the core requirements and functions that would make the data centre operate successfully. In support of this, Durba (2010) also explain that besides provided computing and storage resources on demand, another important aspect or role of the data centre was to provide data protection. This author states that data centres need to have had state-of-art backup and recovery and vaulting solutions in place. He further emphasized that data digitized and gathered by the Government in the process of gover-nance was very valuable and the Government could not afford to lose that data at any cost, even due to natural disasters. Hence, the Government has to consider setting up a Disaster Recovery Centre in geographically different location, preferably in different seismic zones. He also emphasizeds that in case the concerned Government has multiple Data centres, they could be connected to act as a back-up for each other.
The other example was the Datacraft (2010), which could help organisations build a robust and future-proof data centre infrastructure to meet the challenges of today and beyond. It was further stated that the datacraft, provided a complete life cycle of services to address the total data centre and storage needs. As a multi-discipline systems integrator, datacraft has extensive experience in networks, monitoring, security and operating platforms. They conclude their analysis by emphasizing that by combining business consulting skills, innovative solutions and services, Data centres would address the areas of consolidation, continuity and compliance.
Further the Datacraft (2010) described the data centre as the heart of an organisation, housing mission-critical applications and services without which a business cannot function and state that in recent years, the demands on Data centres have increased exponentially. They also emphasized that modern Data centre now need to be agile enough to rapidly respond to changes, while ensuring that data and applications were always available to enable businesses to provide improved cus-tomer services and even greater business intelligence.
Durba (2010) they point out that the success of e-governance initiatives depended on a great deal on sound ICT infrastructure. They consider the Data centre as a centralized location for the storage, management, processing and exchange of data that existed within a specific enterprise or a specialized facility. They further state that in general, Data centres could be broken down into three types: Internet Data centre (IDC), Storage Area Network (SAN) and Enterprise Data centres (EDC). The Internet Data centre (IDC) was a facility that provided data and Internet services for other companies, while the Storage Area Network (SAN) was a network of inter-connected storage devices and data servers usually located within an enterprise Data centre or as an off-site facility offering leased storage space. The Enterprise Data centre (EDC) model was a central processing facility for an enterprise’s computer network.
According to Directorate of Information Technology (DIT) report, the State Data centre (SDC) was envisioned as a ‘Shared, reliable and secure infrastructure services centre for hosting and managing the e-Governance Applications of State and its constituent departments’. SDC was envisaged to establish a robust infrastructure to enable the Government to deliver the services quickly and effectively to its stakeholders. The proposed State Data centre, connected to the State Wide Area Network (SWAN), provided the access to the e-Governance appli-cations and services to Government employees through Intranet and to the citizens through public Internet/CSCs etc. Through such a Shared Service Centre, implemented and managed by a competent Implementation Agency, the individual departments could focus more on the service delivery rather than on the issues surrounding the Infrastructure. The SDCs were envisaged to facilitate consolidation of services, applications and infrastructure. The SDCs were meant to provide the functionality and some of the key functionalities such as central data repository, secure data storage, online delivery of services, citizen information/services portal, state Intranet portal, disaster recovery, remote management and service integration. The SDC was set as a key supporting element of e-Government initiatives and businesses for delivering services to the citizens with greater reliability, availability and serviceability.
It was also explained by Davis (2009) that designing a new Data centre involved numerous considerations, ranging from how much space to construct to what kind of support infrastructure to include. These more technical considerations, however, were in many ways predicated on another critical choice: where to build the Data centre. Selecting an optimal location for a new Data centre was a matter that was far from trivial—location could affect everything from operating expense to availability of employee talent to risks posed by disasters and even political conditions. Thus, the choice of a location could be as important a decision as those revolving around the more technically oriented matters. Traditionally,
companies simply built Data centres in facilities located at their corporate headquarters.
THE CONVERGED DATA CENTRE–LIBRARY
ARCHITECTURE
The Converged Data centre-Library Model (CDC-LM) was a complex system which merges the two data en-tities: the Converged Data centre and Library as demonstrated in Figure 1.
The Converged Data centre-Library Model (CDC-LM) architecture was composed of five operational com-ponents and these were the: Library, Converged Data centre (CDC) which was the heart of the system, Hetero-geneous Repository (HR), the Technology-Connectivity (TC) and the Internet in general. In addition, surrounding the system was the data backup, power backup units and the isolated disaster recover centre. These architecture components are presented as follows.
Technology-Connectivity (TC)
The technology-connectivity (TC) components was com-posed of various network technologies such as the: narrow band which included dial-up and ISDN; wired broadband which consisted of DSL, copper cables and fibre; wireless fixed broadband which was comprised of VSAT, Wi-Fi and WiMAX; and mobile broadband which was composed of new technologies like the 2.5G, 3G and mobile WiMAX. All these technologies surrounded the system to ensure that the environment around the information was catered for. This allowed the system to adapt to the evolved technological trends. These varia-tions of connectivity were employed to suit any geographical terrain and environment. This allowed the connectivity to reach out to the most inaccessible areas. The heterogeneous repository (HR)
The heterogeneous repository (HR) stored data from different sources as received either from the Internet or the Converged Data centre (CDC). The HR held and manipulated the data of specific applications and of particular sources which had a capability of intero-perability with other institutions and organizations. This component facilitated the capturing of relevant and useful information, provided users with information from either the TC or CDC.
The converged data centre (CDC)
The Converged Data centre (CDC) was the core com-ponent of the system. It receives heterogeneous data from the HR. This was where the HR information was integrated and manipulated to form any application
Converged Data Centre(CDC) Het erog eneo us -Repo sitory (H R)
L i b r
a
r
y
Gove rnment Line Ministrie s NGO 's IS Ps Ind ustry T ec h n olog y Co n n ec tivi ties ( T C)_
Data Backup Internet Cloud Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) Power BackupFigure 1. Converged data centre-library model (CDC-LM) architecture.
information. Its application was influenced by the tech-nologies from the Library such as data storage, data retrieval, data manipulation, data transfers, data weeding etc. These library technologies drove the heterogeneous information from all institutions and organizations and could be disseminate it to inaccessible, rural areas. In this way, a conducive environment was created for the successful development of either Governance or e-Government. Since this was a component that handles and manipulated huge data, it required frequent data backup and automatic power backup facilities. In addition a Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) needed to be set up far away from the entire system for security reasons, in case of fire and other unforeseeable hazardous disasters.
Library
As discussed earlier, the Library facilitated the storage, manipulation, retrieval, data transfer, and weeding of the valuable information for the whole system. Also the Library influences the capacity building of manpower that should be deployed for the CDC-LM. Such manpower would have used the Library experiences to operate the whole CDC-LM. In this way the whole mechanism of CDC and Library would have enhanced the application of either e-Governance or e-Government systems.
DISCUSSION
As discussed earlier, the survey carried showed how the sub-Saharan region had struggled for many years to build either e-Governance or e-Government without any success. Some nations had built Data centres, however,
these Data centres stored homogeneous data that was used for a particular company’s application. For this reason, the Data centres did not fulfill the requirements of an information repository that could have lead to the development of e-Governance systems. This paper envisaged the development of the CDC-LM which had the capability of handling heterogeneous information from ministries, NGO’s and industry.
The implementation for the CDC-LM e-Governance or e-Government system created a complete interaction which uses information from all stake-holders. For instance, if a citizen applied to buy a plot or a piece of land from the Ministry of Lands, the CDC-LM system had capabilities of gathering information through the Internet from all the relevant resources as demonstrated in Figure 2.
The system got the applicant’s name, passport number and police clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs; employee number, job and employer from the Ministry of Local Government; date-of-birth and sex/gender from the Ministry of Health; marital-status from the Ministry of Justice; salary from the Ministry of Finance; payment from the Banks; and application number, plot size, plot area and application status from the Ministry of Lands.
Figure 2 demonstrated and emphasized application of the architecture described in Figure 1 by showing what information was accessed from various sources through the Internet, and exchanged among the CDC, HR and TC components. Figure 2 made a final transaction product which was received by the user as a feedback for his notice and action. Finally, the user was notified that the application would be considered but she/he needs to settle all the payments.
The results from Figure 2 showed how the e-Gover-nance or e-Government system was very convenient.
EMPLOYER : The University of Namibia JOB : University Lecturer NAME : Ms. Senzeni Maalila
MINISTRY OF LANDS
APPLICATION FORMS FOR PLOT/LAND
APPLICANT'S PERSONAL DETAILS
SEX : Male DATE OF BIRTH : 6h July 1961 EMP. No. : 1000109
MARRITAL STATUS: Married SALARY No. : 1000109-234 PASSPORT No. : ZA132799
APPLICATION DETAILS
POLICE CLEARANCE : Done / NOT Done
SIZE : 40m x 60m APPLICATION No. : Plot54321
AREA : Chalala Site and service PAYMENT : Cash / Cheque / Visa Card
APPLICATION STATUS :
Your application has been considered, pending payments. Yours, Mr. Muchona Mubotu Permanernt Secretary Minisry of Lands. Ministry of Home Affairs Ministry of Local Government Ministry of Health Ministry of Justice Ministry of Finance Ministry of Lands Ministry of Home Affairs Banks Int ernet Clo uds Int er net Clo ud s
Figure 2. Implementation of the converged data centre-library model (CDC-LM).
Without it the user would have to move from one ministry to another, one company to another to collect the information, but this system was capable of gathering all the relevant information at once and processes them to yield the results. Similarly, the user may have had responded by paying online without necessarily travelling from one point to another. That Governance or e-Government system had access to all sources of information whether public or private. This was possible due to the potential capabilities of handling, and mani-pulation of heterogeneous data by exploiting the Converged Data centre and Library technologies.
However, to ensure that the whole information was safe, the preventive measures needed to be seriously taken care of. To start with, a data back-up of the unit needs to be constructed alongside the CDC-LM. The data back-up unit was automated to periodically back-up the information depending on how the Database Administrator programmes it. Also there was a need to be a power back-up unit which was programmed to automatically switch on if the power was off. In this way, there would be continuity in the power supply, and as such, no data loss would be incurred.
Conclusion
The Converged Data centre-Library Model (CDC-LM) was a complex system which merged two data entities: the Converged Data centre and Library, to implement the e-Governance or e-Government systems. The merging of
the two exploited their ability and capacity to store, access and manipulate large amount of data. The system has a complete and comprehensive architecture which had different network technologies as discussed. It was a comprehensive e-Governance or e-Government system that was capable of accessing data from all government, non-governmental, and industry.
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