CenSus ICT Strategy ( )

Transcription

1 CenSus ICT Strategy ( ) Date: September 2012 Version: 5.0

2 Version Control Amendment History including Author: Version Date Author / Amendment History 1.0 Draft 30 th August 2012 Graham Crossingham initial draft version Page 2 of 20

3 1 Introduction Contents 2. Background 3. The CenSus ICT Service 4. Supporting the 4.1 Business Support 4.2 Service Improvement 4.3 Additional Working 5. ICT Strategy Objectives 5.1 Objective 1: Reduce Costs 5.2 Objective 2: Technology Advances and Compliance 5.3 Objective 3: Known Business Requirements 5.4 Objective 4: Service Improvement 6. ICT Infrastructure 6.1 Server rooms 6.2 Hardware 6.3 Software 6.4 EDRMS 6.5 Wide Area Network (WAN) 6.6 Telephony 6.7 Local Area Network (LAN) 6.8 Hand Held Devices 6.9 ICT Disaster Recovery 6.10 PSN (Public Services Network) 6.11 Help Desk 6.12 ITIL Processes 6.13 Staff Resources Appendix A.CenSus ICT Strategy Action Plan Appendix B Glossary of Terms Page 3 of 20

4 1. Introduction 1.1 This document aims to set out the CenSus strategy framework for delivering ICT technology between 2012 and This document will continue to be updated each year to reflect the next 3 years CenSus ICT technical strategy taking into account any business and ICT priority changes that may take place during the life of the strategy. 1.2 This ICT strategy provides supports all participating authorities in their commitment to work together and to deliver ICT solutions in partnership where there is an opportunity to achieve value for money, increased resilience and improved service delivery. In adopting this strategy, the CenSus partners are endorsing their commitment to a common direction of travel for shared partnership ICT infrastructure solutions. This strategy doesn t preclude any authority partner s from having their own their own individual ICT business requirements on the basis that all ICT solution fits in technically with the core CenSus ICT partnership infrastructure strategy and policies. 2. Background 2.1 The CenSus ICT service which has been in operation since 2005 and is a single service consisting of the combined ICT staff resources from Adur, Horsham, Mid Sussex District Councils and Worthing Borough Council. Horsham D.C. is the lead authority for ICT services and is the sole employer of all CenSus ICT staff, providing any initial funding for all CenSus ICT purchases (all HDC ICT expenditure is apportioned and reclaimed by consent from the other partners). 2.2 The CenSus ICT Service is responsible for the delivery and support of ICT infrastructure services across the CenSus partnership i.e. all pc types including hand held devices, servers, LAN and WAN networking, server rooms, firewalls, back office applications such as , ICT security products, Vmware, Citrix including remote network access. In addition to the infrastructure support service CenSus ICT also provides a single point of contact through an ICT Help Desk service running across all partnership sites. 3. The CenSus ICT Service 3.1 The CenSus ICT Service acts as an enabler and supporter of the CenSus partnerships business areas. The aim of the service is to provide a cost effective and flexible service and to provide the partnership with reliable and secure system access from both internal and external locations. Page 4 of 20

5 4. Supporting the 4.1 Business Support The CenSus ICT strategy is aimed at supporting the business requirements of the partnership as a whole including the need of each individual partner as set out in each of the Councils Corporate and Service plans with the flexibility to respond should changes be required. The strategy (subject to any imposed security constraints) supports and subscribes to the principles of user access to systems in terms of Any Time any Place Anywhere which is a key factor in the success of the current ADC/WBC partnership New Ways of Working initiative. The strategy supports the partnership in the provision of a stable, cost effective and security compliant ICT environment, maximising the availability of systems in order for the authorities to carry out their day to day business services. The strategy is flexible in that it is open to new business opportunities that may arise through additional partnership working with other authorities through such programmes as Better Together or through expanding the CenSus partnership. The strategy will encompass new technology as it becomes available and if cost effective and fit for purpose will adopt these technologies. 4.2 Service Improvement The ICT service will continue to implement processes and procedures based on the ITIL Service Management best practise across the service. The ICT service will continue to liaise with the business through ICT working groups to establish new and / or changing business priorities where there is an ICT service impact. The ICT service will continue through the consolidation and standardisation of new technologies to improve fix/ implementation times including the volume of incident calls being dealt with by the IT service. 4.3 Additional Working The CenSus through the Better Together Programme is working in partnership with other West Sussex local authorities including WSCC. The objective of the programme is to seek out opportunities to improve the customer experience whilst delivering efficiency savings. The four main programme streams being: Customer services Procurement Page 5 of 20

6 Business Support Integrated Service Delivery The West Sussex Chief Executives Group having adopted an over arching County wide ICT strategy which provides a high level statement for their commitment to work together to deliver ICT solutions in partnership where there is an opportunity to achieve value for money, increased resilience or improved service delivery. The CenSus ICT service will actively seek to maximise on partnership working in order to seek cost efficiencies for the CenSus in a way that does not cause the CenSus any detriment in the provision of ICT services. 5. ICT Strategy Objectives The CenSus ICT strategy objectives are based on (i) The need to reduce cost, (ii.) To ensure the ICT service complies with technology advances and security compliance. (iii) To support the by delivering services and solutions against known business requirements (iv) To provide ICT service improvements to improve efficiency and support for current and future partnership working. 5.1 Objective 1: Reduce Costs The CenSus ICT service will continue to investigate and implement technical solutions that provide the CenSus with cost saving efficiencies in the areas of on-going maintenance support contracts, capital cost avoidance, 3 rd party supplied services, efficient utilisation of existing ICT investment and staff costs. The reduction of on-going maintenance costs will be addressed by standardising and rationalising technical platforms including their support arrangements (as the opportunity arises then if applicable more cost efficient technical solutions will be introduced). Continued market testing and renegotiating of existing contracts and the use of existing technology (consolidating platforms server hardware) will continue to drive down cost. Capital cost avoidance is an area that has been of great success whereby the use of virtualisation technology has meant a significant decrease in the purchase of new additional server hardware which has also had an added impact on power usage savings. Other capital savings have been made in the area of joint partnership procurement such as the 2 x SAN purchases made in 2011 (approx. 100k saving). Joint partnership ICT project work is also another contributory area for cost avoidance savings where a solution is implemented once and the implementation template is then used across the whole partnership. CenSus ICT will consider where appropriate 3 rd party services in order to determine the cost effectiveness of running a solution in-house or not. This will apply to the ICT services available from Capita on the back of the WSCC and the Public Services Network (PSN). CenSus ICT will continue to use shared ICT staff resources across the partnership which will increase as the standardisation of ICT services increases. Page 6 of 20

7 5.2 Objective 2: Technology Advances and Compliance The CenSus ICT service will continue to update or migrate to new versions of software as dictated by a business requirement, a legislative requirement, to solve a known problem, to solve a future support or incompatibility issue. The CenSus ICT service will continue to replace or upgrade existing hardware as per the ICT industry recommended standard replacement programme or as befits the business requirement. The CenSus ICT service will continue to provide the business support in maintaining any legislative or 3 rd party security compliance rules (Government COCO compliance requirement for connection to the government network in 2013 will be known as the PSN). 5.3 Objective 3: Known Business Requirements The CenSus ICT Service will continue to provide the business with technology solutions as determined through CenSus, Corporate and Service plans which will be presented to the ICT service through the business IT service introduction process. Regular meetings between the ICT service and the business will be held in order that the business can monitor the ICT strategy implementation, discuss potential solutions and make ICT aware of any potential business changes that have an ICT service impact. Some examples of known business requirements are: CenSus - EDRMS ADC/WBC New Ways of Working HDC Members hand held devices MSDC Assist Legal Service with Case Management Replacement system 5.4 Objective 4: Service Improvement The CenSus ICT Service will continue to implement ICT infrastructure changes to enhance the current IC infrastructure and provide the ICT platform to support future CenSus shared services. The CenSus ICT service will continue to utilise centralised and automated software tools across the partnership in the management of the ICT environment for the purpose of being pro-active in dealing with ICT issues, capacity and performance issues and management reporting maintain and improve system availability. To standardise and consolidate ICT infrastructure components leading to reduction in the number of service elements to support, service improvement in fix times and numbers of incident calls being logged. Page 7 of 20

8 6. ICT Infrastructure 6.1 Server rooms The CenSus ICT server room strategy consists of consolidating from 4 to 2 x main server rooms and to have a North (Horsham) South (Worthing) main server room presence providing each other with D/R backup cover. The majority of CenSus partnership shared systems will be run and accessed from Horsham. The majority of the current MSDC systems will be relocated and accessed from Horsham. The consolidation of MSDC systems at Horsham provides MSDC with a more stable and fault tolerant environment as well as lowering power costs. The ADC/WBC partnership as part of the new Ways of Working project is consolidating their systems into the WBC server room. Note at both HDC and MSDC there will still be a requirement for a Comm s room presence to run ICT equipment such as WAN, LAN and a small amount of server equipment deemed necessary to remain on site. 6.2 Hardware CenSus ICT has adopted the VMware server virtualisation product which has been a great success in lowering capital expenditure by lessening the requirement to purchase new physical server equipment. At the same time this technology has introduced several additional service benefits, by speeding up the process of creating new server implementations, disaster recovery capability and inbuilt service availability failover feature. The choice of PC Desktops, laptops, printers, scanners and other mobile devices due to the purchasing preferences of each partner, changes in and technology preferences it has been difficult to set a PC, Printer and mobile device standard other areas such as scanners this hasn t been problem. Equipment such as SAN, LAN, Firewall, Remote access systems where specific support skills are required will be standardised on a single platform (Check Point and Cisco PIX firewall solutions) as they become end of life or as other opportunities arise. The CenSus partnership are looking at the potential implementation of a telephony technology called SIP Trunks which will provide improved telephony integration by allowing different geographical telephone numbers to be pointed direct to telephone systems at a different location i.e. a HDC number can be pointed to be answered at MSDC and vice versa. This enables each authority to retain their current telephony investment but provides a solution for additional partnership working across authorities. 6.3 Software Page 8 of 20

9 Microsoft Enterprise agreements are in place for each of the partnership authorities hence there will be a move towards standardising on Microsoft Windows 7 and MS Office and Exchange 2010 across the partnership in CenSus ICT will continue to standardise on single software products as the opportunity arises, during the course of this strategy a review will be carried out to determine what software is in use across the partnership and to rationalise on specific products i.e. standardise on one desk top publishing software package rather than have many different versions. 6.4 EDRMS Although the CenSus ICT service is not responsible for the specific software support of the Work EDRMS system, the CenSus ICT service is responsible for the infrastructure that the EDRMS system runs on. CenSus ICT will ensure suitable processes and procedures continue to be in place to ensure that the EDRMS environment meet the business requirements. 6.5 Wide Area Network (WAN) Through the Better Together Programme partnership agreement the CenSus plan to migrate existing WAN services to the new Capita supplied WAN service in Due to CenSus project dependencies (ADC/WBC NWOW project) the full migration to the Capita will probably be carried out in several phases. The WAN migration includes Capita becoming the CenSus partnerships new Internet Service Provider (ISP). 6.6 Telephony The CenSus ICT Service is currently investigating SIP trunk technology in order to address the following (the ADC/WBC partnership has already placed an order with Capita): Provide an additional degree of Disaster Recovery backup in the event that the end of life HDC telephone system should fail. Provide Revs and Bens with a service enhancement by improving telephony interconnectivity between partner sites. Provide ADC/WBC with the means to move calls between sites during their period of decamping staff between buildings whilst building work is in progress. SIP trunk technology provides the ability to direct calls for answering to a location that has no dependency on regional dial code. There is a requirement for HDC to replace an end of life telephone system where the options being considered are: replace with a managed telephony service or install a telephone system capable of working in parallel with an existing partners system. Whichever option is chosen there will be an option for HDC to include Contact Centre solution. Page 9 of 20

10 The ADC/WBC partnership as part of its NWOW project is reviewing available telephony options (similar options to HDC). Discussion has taken place between authorities and should the opportunity arise then a joint procurement could be a possibility. 6.7 Local Area Network (LAN) The core HDC LAN equipment is now end of life (9 years old), support for the core LAN equipment has come to an end, the LAN equipment is not capable of supporting any new installations of IP telephony (providing power over Ethernet). The ADC/WBC partnership as part of the NWOW project also has a requirement to change their LAN equipment in order to support the changes happening in their server room consolidation and support for a new IP telephony service and Wireless Networking within its accommodation spaces. The replacement of the LAN equipment by 2 x partners has presented the CenSus ICT service with the opportunity to carry out a single procurement exercise and to standardise on a single manufacturer solution with a purchasing framework in place for other CenSus partners to use. As part of this procurement it is planned to purchase a LAN monitoring software that will be provide the ability to centralised monitoring of the whole of the CenSus LAN environment in order to be proactive in identifying likely problems before they happen and to use as a standardised toolset in fixing problems. It is proposed that during 2013 to replace the MSDC LAN equipment (end of life) and standardise the replacement hardware on the same LAN platform as the other partners. 6.8 Hand Held Devices To evaluate through the use of pilots the business benefit of using hand held devices whilst complying with the COCO security compliance. 6.9 ICT Disaster Recovery The CenSus ICT high level ICT Disaster Recovery (D/R) plan is based on having a North (Horsham) and South (Worthing) server room presence with one providing back up to the other. Currently within the Horsham based server room there are 2 free rack spaces allocated for D/R purposes at Worthing the additional 2 x D/R rack spaces are still to be created but are planned as part of the ADC/WBC partnership New Ways of Working project. Several technologies have already been implemented by ICT that makes the final D/R solution a less complex task to implement i.e. the same SAN technology is in use ready for SAN to SAN data replication between server rooms. The use of the Page 10 of 20

11 server virtualisation software provides for faster and easier recovery of servers between sites. Work was due to complete during 2012 on the disaster recovery solution due to other work load commitments this unlikely to happen until The work still to be completed is as follows:- Scope the CenSus ICT D/R requirements (prioritise recovery of systems, scope how to access to systems, produce recovery plan, scope how the ICT plan interfaces interface into business continuity plans) Build additional space in Worthing server room Purchase any additional ICT infrastructure resources (additional servers, SAN disk, network equipment, standardise tape drives) Complete any outstanding virtualisation of servers virtualise MSDC systems at Horsham Networking expand local networks to other locations i.e. HDC and MSDC to have a presence in Worthing server room. SAN to SAN data replication test and implement Vmware test VMware server recovery across networks Align Commvault backup and recovery The CenSus Revs and Bens service is covered by D/R recovery within 24 hours. Note the more likely failure to be experienced by an authority is from an individual piece of the ICT infrastructure failing. This type of failure has been lessened by the introduction of technologies that give the partnership dual failover or redundancy of parts, backup power supplies and resilient server rooms PSN (Public Services Network) CenSus ICT will continue to monitor the Government s ICT strategy in relation to the PSN and to the services as they become available implementing PSN services will be considered when looking for new technical solutions. The CenSus partners all currently have GCF security compliance to allow them to use the government s secure network service. In 2013 the GCF compliance changes to PSN compliance which the CenSus ICT will adopt comply with, adapting to any new changes as required Help Desk The CenSus ICT Help Desk will be upgraded to the next version in 2012 as part of the release schedule new product features will continue to be monitored and introduced into the ICT service if the benefits significantly improve the ICT service. During 2012 planned service improvement changes will be made to enable the Help Desk staff to make additional first line fixes and to carry out some 2 nd line support tasks. The HDC Building Services now share the Help Desk system with ICT for logging service related calls there is potential that the MSDC building services team will also use the system. Page 11 of 20

12 6.12 ITIL Processes CenSus ICT have established ITIL processes in place for Incident Management and Requests for Fulfilment (work requests), Change Management and Problem Management are to implemented in Staff Resources CenSus ICT uses its ICT staff resources to provide day to day operational support for services including project involvement across the partnership. It is the CenSus Senior ICT Management s aim to restructure the ICT team and align the staff resources more in line with the on-going ICT changes to obtain improved service efficiencies. The proposed ICT restructure will probably include the harmonisation of the ICT staff terms and conditions. In 2013/14 due to the volume of proposed project work it is planned to seek authorisation for 2 x additional resources with one located at HDC and the other at MSDC staff resources at ADC/WBC have already been increased to account for the NWOW project. Page 12 of 20

13 Appendix A. CenSus ICT Strategy Action Plan The four main Objectives of the ICT Strategy Plan are: Objective 1: To reduce operational costs within the ICT service Objective 2: To ensure the CenSus maintain technical and security compliance and compatibility by implementing technology advances Objective 3: To support the CenSus with ICT support in delivering CenSus, Corporate and individual Service plans Objective 4: To provide the CenSus with service improvements that enables and supports the current including any future partnership working service. Note the following list of activities is not limited to but will be added and amended each year.

14 CenSus ICT Infrastructure Strategy Action Plan The following table contains the ICT service strategy action plan for matched against strategy objectives. Year Authority Strategy Deliverable Description Strategy Objective(s) 2012/13 ADC/WBC New Ways of Working solution. The ADC/WBC New Ways of Working Project includes the implementation of the following ICT infrastructure solutions: 3 New wireless network Desk top and mobile device management Windows 7 and MS office 2010 rollout New LAN Replacement printer strategy Server room upgrade Office moves New and interim telephony solutions 2012/13 CenSus Development of the business relationship across the CenSus CenSus ICT to attend individual authority meetings attended and chaired by senior officer representatives. The purpose of the meetings for each authority is to: To have an understanding of and have input into the CenSus ICT strategy ensuring the business strategy is represented. To provide CenSus ICT guidance in submitting I.C.T. capital / revenue project bids. To have an ICT overview of any submitted projects from within the local authority. 3 Page 14 of 20

15 To discuss corporate matters where there is an ICT impact. To ensure opportunities for partnership working are recognised and taken where appropriate. To review the day to day operational CenSus ICT service. 2012/13 Census MS Exchange 2010 upgrade and implementation of a new CenSus Service MS Exchange system To consolidate on Microsoft Exchange 2010 across the CenSus partnership and create a separate CenSus system to enable the current CenSus services to collaborate more effectively /13 Census 2012/13 CenSus 2012/13 CenSus Data archiving and backup strategy PC Desktop and mobile device management solution Network monitoring solution Review the partnerships future data storage requirements and produce a roadmap for archiving and future backup strategy. To implement a solution for a standard approach across the CenSus partnership for the deployment of applications across the CenSus partnership. The final solution will provide efficiencies by reducing the number of ways applications are currently being rolled out and provide service improvement by speeding up the deployment of applications. The initial work is being carried out by ADC/WBC as part of their New Ways of Working project which will form the template for all other partnership sites. To implement a partnership wide network monitoring solution to enable the proactive monitoring of systems status and events to prevent or minimise failures if they occur this solution is being implemented as part of the HDC and WBC new LAN implementation projects /13 CenSus ICT disaster recovery To produce a road map for the future implementation of a 3 Page 15 of 20

16 consultancy partnership disaster recovery solution. Telecoms (Sip Trunks) solution 2012/13 CenSus 2012/13 CenSus 2012/13 CenSus 2012/13 CenSus Replace current WAN solution Disaster recovery implementation CenSus core network switch upgrade To implement SIP trunks (Capita supplied service) across all partners in order to provide an improved telephony solution for the CenSus Revs and Bens service, reduced telephony costs, provide HDC with a backup solution in the event of a telephone system failure, and to provide the ADC/WBC with a solution to move telephone numbers as part of their New ways of Working project. Migration of the CenSus partners to the WSCC/Capita WAN solution. The solution being an enabler for other partnership working across West Sussex, CenSus reduced costs for internet access and WAN services, an enabler for future PSN services take up. To implement a disaster recovery solution based on using the server rooms at Horsham and Worthing providing reciprocal arrangements. To upgrade the CenSus LAN equipment in preparation for the move of the MSDC Server equipment to Horsham and for the disaster recovery requirements between Horsham and Worthing server rooms. 2012/13 CenSus CenSus ICT staff restructure The implementation of a new CenSus ICT staff structure /13 CenSus New ITIL Processes Implement Change and Problem management process /13 CenSus Upgraded CenSus ICT Help Upgrade CenSus ICT Help Desk to latest release 2 Desk 2012/13 CenSus Installation of the new EV To provide support to the CenSus Revs and Bens service in 3 Academy system the upgrade the Academy new EV system. 2012/13 HDC HDC server room HDC have now moved all of their server equipment to the WSCC Horsham based server room a new comm s room is being built to house ICT equipment remaining within the Page 16 of 20

17 HDC park North offices. 2012/13 HDC New LAN Equipment HDC is in the process of replacing their LAN equipment in order to replace end of life equipment and to ensure the new equipment is capable of supporting a new telephone service. HDC are carrying out a joint procurement exercise with WBC in order to set up a framework agreement for all partners. The scope of this project also includes the implementation of a CenSus wide network monitoring tool. 2012/13 HDC/MSDC Bulk of MSDC servers virtualised at Horsham To move specific MSDC ICT server room equipment Horsham for the purpose of lowering MSDC power costs, providing a more resilient server room facility and part of the CenSus D/R plan. Note this does not mean the closure of the MSDC server room as it will still be required to house network equipment and some locally required servers. 2012/13 HDC/MSDC archiving Implement an archiving business solution for HDC and MSDC this work will be picked up as part of the CenSus MS Exchange 2010 project. 2012/13 MSDC 20 to 30 PC s replaced Annual PC replacement rollout programme /13 MSDC Eliminate SQL 2000 Upgrade SQL 2000 implementations to SQL /14 ADC/WBC Completion of New Ways of Working Project 2013/14 ADC/WBC Infrastructure Replacement Programme Completion of the New Ways of Working Project Desk top and mobile device management Windows 7 and MS office 2010 rollout Replacement printer strategy New telephony solution Continuous replacement of ICT infrastructure as required or as age/decrepitude dictates. This includes servers, desktops, laptops, firewalls, UPS and cabling. 2013/14 CenSus Reduced internet security Review and consolidate internet security products in order 1 operational costs to reduce costs. 2013/14 CenSus Trial of Red Hat Linux To implement a trial of Red Hat Linux for the purpose of to 4 Page 17 of 20

18 2013/14 CenSus 2013/14 CenSus MS SQL 2012 Strategy Integrated cross partnership backup and recovery solution moving the Academy Revs and Bens system to a more cost efficient platform in 2014/15. The 2013/14 trial will be run using the HDC Housing system. Review the CenSus ICT partnership regarding the 2 implementation and upgrade to MS SQL Integrate Commvault across the partnership 4 Additional SAN Capacity Review and expand SAN capacity /14 CenSus 2013/14 HDC Rollout of Windows 7 and upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010 Upgrade from Windows XP and full rollout of MS Office 2010 in preparation of the withdrawal of Windows 7 support in April 2014 includes new Desk top and laptop PC rollout. 2013/14 HDC Members IPADS Members IPADS rollout dependency on the 2012 trial /14 HDC New telephone service Either installation of a system or purchase of a managed 2 solution. 2013/14 HDC Telephony Contact Centre To provide a contact centre technology solution /14 MSDC 20 to 30 PC s replaced Annual PC replacement rollout programme /14 MSDC Wireless installed within To install a wireless network solution to cover in-scope 3 meeting rooms meeting rooms 2013/14 MSDC Rollout of Windows 7 and upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010 Upgrade from Windows XP and full rollout of MS Office 2010 in preparation of the withdrawal of Windows 7 support in April 2014 utilising existing stock of PC s /14 MSDC Replaced end of life LAN switches 2013/14 MSDC Increased Storage Server upgrade 2013/14 MSDC Replacement of old digital / analogue handsets with VOIP telephone handsets Replacement of MSDC LAN switches 2 Increase storage server capacity invest in new NAS storage. Replace old digital / analogue handsets with VOIP telephone handsets 2014/15 CenSus Application review of all Review application software usage across the partnership Page 18 of 20

19 apps. and where applicable in conjunction with the business with a view to consolidating the number of applications and reducing costs. 2014/15 CenSus Additional SAN Capacity Review and expand SAN capacity /15 CenSus Academy system running on a more cost efficient infrastructure platform (Red Hat Linux). To move the Academy Revs and Bens from the current SUN Solaris system onto a Red Hat Linux system. 2014/15 MSDC 20 to 30 PC s replaced Annual PC replacement rollout programme Page 19 of 20

20 Appendix B Glossary of Terms DMZ Demilitarised Zone for security purposes i.e. attack from the internet, it is the part of a network which has been sectioned off from the core internal network to contain ICT services such as public facing applications. GCSx - Government Connect Secure Extranet is the governments secure private Wide-Area Network (WAN) which enables secure interactions between connected Local Authorities and organisations this network is being superseded in 2013 by the PSN (Governments Public Services Network). LAN Local Area Network The local connectivity from the user desk to the computer room where connections to the WAN are made SAN Storage Area Network A shared resource (disks) for the efficient storage of data. A SAN is also a key requirement for server virtualisation technologies such as VMware, PC desk top virtualisation and ICT disaster recovery (data replication between SANs). Server Farm is a group of servers required for running a service such as Citrix, Vmware. Telecoms applies to physical telephone systems used within the partnership. Increasingly telecoms are supplied using computer applications and network (VoiP voice over IP) and this approach will impact at some point on the CenSus councils. UPS Uninterruptable Power Supply, this device is essentially a battery backup for connected systems in the event of power supply blackout or brownout. Typically used in Data Centres and Network closets to maintain systems availability, e.g. Voice over IP telephony. Vmware Vmware is a software product that can be used to create many virtual servers on a physical server. The benefit of using this technology is the reduction in the number of physical servers required, the power saved by having less servers, efficiencies with the process in building new virtual servers and the benefits of VMware give in terms of ICT disaster recovery and server clustering system availability. WAN - Wide Area Networking are the physical data network links connecting the partnerships buildings along which user s access data stored at other remote locations.