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A Publication Featuring The Information Services Technology of Maine State Government
By Dick Hinkley, Mark Kemmerle, Ellen Lee, and Val Wood
It being the traditional time to take stock of the past year and, for the bold, to make resolutions for the new year, we at the Bureau of Information Services (BIS) thought it would be worthwhile and interesting to consider what we’ve accomplished with our customers in 2000. It must first be said that none of this is possible without our customers. Given the myriad demands and pressures of our daily activities, it is all too possible that at times we don’t always demonstrate the full appreciation we have for our customers who put their faith in us to help them achieve their goals. To all our customers, a most sincere thank you for working so well with us and for allowing us to be part of your accomplishments on behalf of the citizens of Maine.
It’s remarkable that, as an organization, BIS is so routinely busy that we too seldom take the opportunity to appreciate the breadth and depth of responsibilities and skills of our own colleagues. A person in one part of the organization, busily doing his or her own job, may be unaware of what others in a different area are doing – yet it is satisfying to observe that, nonetheless, each person safely assumes the others are striving for quality services and products for our customers. That is a hallmark of our work we can be proud of.
In the following list of Year 2000 accomplishments, we hope readers will develop an appreciation of the diversity and value of the work being accomplished by each and every person associated with the efforts. And it must first be noted that any Year 2000 accomplishment list is headlined by the start of the year’s calendar rollover – with no Y2K problems suffered anywhere. Truly, the efforts expended by so many in preparing for Y2K, throughout Maine State Government, achieved stellar results. Congratulations – and thanks – to all involved!
The many other Year 2000 accomplishments listed range from very specifically focused work for individual customers, to more general and strategic work for all customers, such as improving the voice and data networking infrastructure, and increasingly including video. We have organized this list largely by organizational unit within BIS so each group’s accomplishments can be recognized. And, as with any list, some things may not be included – largely for lack of space – but we hope the breadth and depth is apparent to all. And just imagine what this list would look like if all departments were to add their own accomplishments.
Meanwhile, we at BIS not only want to thank everyone who worked with us this past year, but we also want to wish everyone an even more successful year in 2001. It seems there is a still growing spirit of cooperation between departments and agencies, a spirit that bodes well for achieving things together that we can’t achieve individually. We at BIS are pleased and proud to be a part of so many important endeavors.
We wish everyone a happy and successful New Year!
Development Services
MFASIS (Maine Financial and Administrative Statewide Information Systems)
GIS (Geographical Information Systems)
RAD (Rapid Application Development)
NECSES (New England Child Support Enforcement System)
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
Network Services
WEBNM
The WebNM product was installed this past quarter giving the network community alerting and reporting capabilities for all WAN sites, BIS maintained servers, and BIS supported local area networks. Network utilization is now collected continuously for the network. Buffer space, memory, CPU utilization, etc. are reported on servers and routers, all available from anywhere in the network via a browser.
BACK-UP LINKS
ATM backup support has been finalized. All of our ATM links now have T-1 back-up circuits with separate bridges. These back-up circuits are monitored 24X7 to ensure they are available when needed. The separate bridge concept allows us to switch back and forth with minimal disruption and requires no site visit.
NETWORK HUB SITES
The major ATM and T-1 hub sites have been greatly improved for survivability. We have added UPS systems that will allow us to sustain operations during power outages. For example, in the past, if Caribou DHS was to lose power, all of Caribou and Presque Isle would also cease to function. With the UPS, the only affected part of the network is the DHS local area network. The WAN links (including the ATM link) would continue to run, but on battery backup. The NSD networking staff has also added Enterprise network grade WAN routers/bridges at the hub sites. These Cisco units have built-in redundancy, are more powerful, and better positions us for the changeover to routing next year. We also added terminal servers at the hub sites that allow us to dial into any hub site and make a direct console connection to any of the hub site pieces of equipment. A network outage cannot prevent us from dialing into the hub sites to trouble shoot the problem. This also saves us from using man-hours on site visits. The Houlton area was added to the ATM network this year with the creation of an ATM hub site at Houlton DHS. This hub sites includes running voice and data over the ATM circuit.
NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
In order to better support increasing performance demands, two major steps were taken to improve the physical architecture of the WAN. The first step was the elimination of many of the older DDS-II (56kbps) circuits. These were replaced with T-1 (1.5mbps) circuits. The second step was to remove multiple hops. Most locations are now one communications link away from a hub site, where before, sites could have been two, three, or even four hops away from a hub site.
SHIVA
A new Shiva Remote Access Switch was installed to address user connectivity and speed issues. The new Shiva system can support up to 48 simultaneous calls at 56kb modem speeds. With the ever increasing demands on the BIS dial-up systems, we are currently testing a new strategy that will have Verizon provide up to 200 ports at 56kb speeds AND single number dialing from just about everywhere in the state.
DHCP
The Data Networking division worked with the Enterprise Group in the testing of the proposed Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) product. Over half of the group was converted to DHCP as the first test bed. In addition, members of the data staff designed bridge and switch filters which allow DHCP to work across the WAN.
SWITCHING TECHNOLOGY
The data networking staff has been deploying new switching technology at Edison Drive and the Cross Building. These switches will support the traditional Layer-2 switching mode as well as Layer-3 routing. The impact of these switches means that we can maintain 100mb and gigabit speeds on campus LAN segments even after we switch to routing. In addition to the routing capabilities, these switches employ Quality of Service (QOS) optioning and tagged trunk VLAN functionality. QOS will allow us to mix Voice over IP (VOIP) with normal data yet allocate service to voice when needed to maintain smooth voice communications. The tagged trunk VLAN feature allows us to create logical, separate LANs within a facility and pass them over a common high-speed link yet they are still isolated from each other.
WINDOWS 2000
BIS and the ISMG have been working together to define and adopt the structure by which the state will deploy Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows2000 (W2K). The ISMG has formally approved the structure and standard naming conventions and continues to work out the governance of the environment. BIS will provide forest management services to state agencies and agencies will be able to manage their own organizational units.
PFR SLA
As of October 2000, BIS is providing full desktop support for all standard application to all PCs and laptops for Professional and Financial Regulation (PFR). Under the SLA, BIS is committed to providing ongoing support of PFR’s mail services, file and print services, and all desktop services including technology refreshment. PFR entered this agreement with BIS so their internal technical resources can better focus their attentions on providing unique applications support to their customers.
MS/EXCHANGE (MAIL) SERVICES
Over this past year, BIS’ MS/Exchange (mail) service has more than doubled its customer base. New customers of our messaging services include the Department of Corrections, the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, Public Utilities Commission, Department of Education, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Office of the Attorney General. Mail service availability over the year has exceeded 99% for all our customers.
HIGH RELIABILITY UPGRADE
BIS upgraded the main PPN (PBX – voice communications) at the State Office Building to have higher reliability. Dual processors and other critical components were added to have total redundancy to ensure minimal loss of telephone service.
FACILITY MOVES
"INFORMATION PLEASE"
During the year, the State Operators handled approximately 150,000 calls from people requesting services from Maine State Government. These calls include informational calls, call transfers, and attendant calls. State operators also assist agencies with the set-up on teleconferences.
CALL MANGEMENT SERVICES (CMS)
Continued customer interest in CMS over this past year has doubled our user base of this product to over 400. DOL, AG, BMV, MRS, and DHS all have active call centers. This product allows an agency to manage their call volumes and provides a level of reporting that includes wait time statistics, abandoned call numbers and length of calls to determine effectiveness of their telephone services.
Production Services
In the first year of the new millennium, the Production Services Division marked the following accomplishments and milestones: