Odisha plans disaster-immune data centre, initiates talks with NIC, BSNL

Two months after the state's coast was pounded by Cyclone Fani, the Odisha government has set the ball rolling for a disaster resilient data centre.

The state's data centre had suffered consequential damage after the tropical cyclone damaged power infrastructure.

“Our data centre has suffered multiple fibre disruptions due to the cyclone. We have done a detailed study on the disaster resilient, cloud-based data centre. It has multiple power back-ups. Also, the data centre will be loaded with cyber security features and we will have a standard operating procedure (SOP) for easy hosting of government applications. It will offer both scalability and inter-operability”, said C J Venugopal, principal secretary (electronics & IT), Odisha government.

The state electronics and IT department is talking to multiple entities including National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Data Centre (NDC), Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and telecom services provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). The data centre is expected to be operational in about three months time

The data centre is designed only for government applications. The proposed centre can be installed without significant capital expenditure. 

With a capacity of 40 racks, the existing state data centre is saturated. It has been hosting more than 300 critical applications, catering to the needs of all government departments. However, the state electronics and IT department has started 'Government of Odisha Cloud', resulting in optimal utilisation of resources and hosting of more IT applications with the same capacity.

"We are actually conserving the space now by optimally using the available space. The cloud is being is expanded further", said an official.