Minister Terry Lister outlined a comprehensive plan dubbed Project Phoenix to enhance information technology systems in Bermuda. It is a measured and appropriate plan that, when complete, modern, cutting edge infrastructure will be in place. Minister Lister outlined the project:

Mr. Speaker, Project Phoenix is designed to modernize every area of IT. There are two primary aspects of Project Phoenix:

Enhancing the Technology - that will (i) provide stability and reliability by introducing fault tolerance through redundancy for major components such as the data centers, servers, network, and internet connections and (ii) extend capacity and capability for current and future applications.

People & Process - that will improve (i) Operations and Monitoring tools to allow identification of issues before they happen, reducing service disruptions and (ii) new Change Management controls will mitigate risks and reduce downtime to the production environment.

The bottom line is that our users will experience less down time, faster applications and access to newer technology as it emerges. These benefits will be achieved with a backdrop of comprehensive security and disaster recovery readiness.

Mr. Speaker, the scope of Phoenix is wide reaching, and for budgetary and management purposes, it will be addressed in four tracks, and rolled out in three phases over the next three years.

Mr. Speaker, Track One is the Data Center.

• Servers at the central Data Center will move to dual locations along with two Internet connections. We will no longer have all of our eggs in one basket.
• Email servers will be updated to support some of the newer services referred to previously, and will have redundancy, reflecting their vital role.
• Cutting edge security systems using the dual Internet connections and the latest technology will minimize any risk.
• A State of the Art Test Lab will evaluate new releases of software and hardware. This will allow rigorous acceptance testing before new technology is introduced into our production environment.

Mr. Speaker, Track Two is the Network:

• Redundancy is a key focus in the new network.
• Increasing network bandwidth and storage to meet current and future needs.
• Advanced network traffic controls will allocate priority and bandwidth to services according to need, increasing speed and access to all applications.

Mr. Speaker, Track Three is Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.

• Successful Disaster Recovery exercises on the Financial and Social Insurance critical systems have been completed. These policies and processes will be expanded to other departments.
• Comprehensive policies and procedures will be addressed that are essential to industry standard Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity systems.

Mr. Speaker, Track Four is Business Processes and Organization.

• Implementing the organization, policies and procedures to protect and maintain investment in hardware and software.
• Enhancing Operations & Monitoring tools to better recognize services moving outside of tolerance levels and initiate corrective measures before disruptions occur.
• Establishing service level targets for IT systems along with the management mechanisms to gauge and revise performance against targets.

Mr. Speaker, over the next three years Project Phoenix will be implemented in three phases:

• Phase 1- Foundation. Started in April 08.
  • Testing the designs for replacing key infrastructure, and beginning a limited rollout. Completion goal is June 2009.

• Phase 2 – Reengineering and Replacement of Core IT Infrastructure
• Key Government Buildings will be added to the new network and connected to the dual data centers. Completion goal is September 2010.
• Phase 3 – Rollout IT Infrastructure to remaining locations
• All remaining buildings and systems added to the new IT Infrastructure. Completion goal is September 2011

This effective and forward thinking planning will take our information technology resources to the next level.