Outsourcing critical infrastructure management is the name of the game today for many Canadian enterprises in the private and public sectors. And it’s also the route Health Canada has chosen to ensure the security and effectiveness of its 83 server systems.
These Health Canada servers will be monitored 24x7 by Nuvo Network Management Inc., an Ottawa-based provider of IT infrastructure management and protection services.
The initiative is in line with “The Way Forward”, a program spearheaded by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to improve how the Government of Canada does business. The program seeks innovative ways of delivering services smarter, faster and at a reduced cost.
This initiative mandates greater outsourcing of services to make better use of taxpayer dollars, according to Don Daniels, product manager at PWGSC. Daniels, who manages network contracting services for many government departments, believes with the financial burden eased from Joe Public, the government as a whole can focus on sharing services and consolidating data centres.
Nuvo’s responsibility includes alerting Health Canada about “potential problems before they impact service operations,” according to the company’s president and CEO, Phil Weaver.
If server memory approaches capacity, Nuvo can advise network managers to take corrective action before the server crashes or data gets corrupted, Weaver said. “In a nutshell, we tell them where there’s going to be a problem before there actually is one, so they can maximize uptime.”
According to Daniels, Health Canada remains responsible for second and third level server management.