UII and Co-Loc
Yesterday I attended a joint ACIO/Product Management Council meeting. The topic was the renewal of the Utah Interactive contract and web hosting in general. For those unfamiliar with the history of web development in the State of Utah over the past 4 years, Utah Interactive, Inc (called UII by most state folks, UI by those who work there) has been responsible for a large amount of progress towards getting services online. They basically own and run the Utah.gov portal, and they have successfully created 70+ web applications for a multitude of state agencies. They have done a lot of great work in a time where there really wasn't anyone else to fill that void.
Well, their 4 year contract expires sometime in May, and the discussion at the meeting yesterday centered around renewing the contract, and on where their applications will live. Today, all UII apps live in their own facility. ITS attempted unsuccessfully last year to migrate their apps to our iPlanet environment. UII uses Linux. In order to bring those apps into a more controlled environment, it has been decided that colocation is the best option. UII will bring their servers to ITS' data center where they will enjoy world-class environmental, network, and power facilities, not to mention physical security. I think this is the right thing to do. I also believe that renewing the UII contract is a wise decision, however, in order for eGovernment to mature, changes need to be made to our relationship with UII. I believe that the relationship should be more customer (the state)/contractor (UII) rather than partner/partner. I'm not discounting the value of what they have done, nor do I think our relationship should end, I'd just like to see the state take charge of its eGovernment destiny instead of outsourcing it.
8:16:02 AM 
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