President Yoweri Museveni will Thursday launch Uganda’s first tier 3 data center, another huge project that technology experts say will have a far-reaching impact on the country’s digitization journey.
The National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U), which oversees the initiative, announced the development. The facility was constructed in Jinja district’s main town where Museveni will be to commission its Municipality.
A good morning fam.
We hope your weekend is started off to a right start.
Ours has, here's some noteworthy news ?#DigitizeUg pic.twitter.com/75gOVRwfdR— NITA-Uganda (@NITAUganda1) July 6, 2019
According to NITA-U, the tier 3 data center was constructed with a view to avoiding duplication of information and wastage of resources. The facility will house all government ICT infrastructure and will host disaster recovery services for government applications and data.
“The new DC [data center] will house all Government ICT applications thereby saving tax payer’s money with the centralized hosting consequently avoiding duplication and wastage of resources,” NITA-U Director Technical Services Vivian Ddambya said in Tuesday Twitter Live Chat. “Also, the speed-to-market for eServices will be significantly faster.”
The new DC will house all Government ICT applications thereby saving tax payer’s money with the centralized hosting consequently avoiding duplication and wastage of resources.
Also, the speed-to-market for eServices will be significantly faster. #DigitizeUG— Vivian Ddambya (@VivianDdambya) July 9, 2019
In 2018, Mr. Peter Kahiigi, the acting Executive director of NITA-U, walked the Members of Parliament on the ICT committee through how the data center would shape Uganda’s digital future.
“This upgrade in design and capacity meets current and future demands because it is scalable. These data centers not only enhance service provision and data security, but they also eliminate duplication and wastage of resources arising from the implementation of parallel systems in Government,” he said.
He requested the MPs to ensure that the data center and data recovery services are fully utilized by supporting the drive to ensuring all government services are hosted at the DC and DR to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of Government systems.
The National Data Centre will also host the Government Cloud, MyUG Cloud.
MyUG Cloud will enable Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to focus their resources on service-based delivery rather than asset-based delivery.
MyUG Cloud has been established to support the following service delivery models; Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service, Backup as a Service and Platform as a Service.
Ms. Annet Nyakecho, the chairperson ICT Parliamentary Committee, said the center will save a lot of resources that different government ministries, departments and agencies have been using to provide isolated data storage facilities.
She said her team would push for better facilitation to NITA-U to scale up its efforts in providing a robust and secure data center and risk recovery facility in the country.
“It is impressive to see such a facility put in place to secure government data storage. We look forward to the launch of the new Government Data Center and the provision of onward delivery of eServices that will benefit the citizens of Uganda.”
It should be recalled that at the recently concluded the E-Government Excellence Awards, NITA-U recognized sixteen government entities and one personality for efforts on promoting electronic delivery of services to Ugandans.
The Authority is also set to unveil an electronics payment gateway to facilitate payment of government services.
Govt is set to unveil the electronic payment gateway through @NITAUganda1. The Payment gateway is to enable citizens pay for govt services like taxes, permit fees, passports among others electronically. According to NITA, the gateway is to be piloted with a few govt agencies. pic.twitter.com/p3u7acAP4f
— UBC UGANDA (@ubctvuganda) July 5, 2019
In the FY2012/13, Cabinet of Uganda approved the Strategy for Rationalization of Information Technology Service across Government entities.
The purpose of the strategy is to eliminate duplication and wastage of resources. A total of 34 entities and 36 E-Government Applications are currently hosted at the National DC and DRS.
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