Maryland Department of IT Modernizes IT Operations
Explore how the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) successfully consolidated IT services across state agencies with TierPoint.
“Our experience with TierPoint has been transformative for the State of Maryland’s IT infrastructure. Initially, we faced hardware issues and slow restore speeds, but after switching to TierPoint's recommended all-flash storage solution, our backup and recovery times improved drastically. Restoring virtual machines now takes minutes instead of hours, significantly boosting our operational efficiency and resilience.”
Darrell Stevens
Senior Systems Engineer
Introduction
The Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) is dedicated to delivering essential information technology solutions that empower the State’s Executive Branch, State Agencies, and Coordinating Offices. DoIT’s services enhance government services, helping Marylanders live more safely, efficiently, and productively.
In 2014, DoIT began its role as an umbrella department for various state agencies, providing a secure, centralized server and storage service to host agency applications and servers. Managing compute, storage, and initial OS installations for around 30 state agencies presented significant challenges. Recognizing the need for consolidation, reduced downtime risk, and economies of scale, DoIT sought a partnership to address these needs effectively.
Challenges
In 2014, the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) faced a significant challenge as it began consolidating disparate state agencies now under its purview, necessitating the integration and consolidation of infrastructures in numerous outdated server rooms. This transition, involving approximately 30 agencies, required DoIT to identify a facility capable of providing the necessary services to accommodate rapid growth, prompting the search for a new technology partner.
Additionally, DoIT needed a solution to protect its infrastructure from natural disasters. Their previous location posed a significant risk, with the threat of an impending hurricane. During this time, TierPoint, where DoIT already maintained a small presence, reassured them that their local data center was fully prepared, with dedicated staff, reliable generators, and tested systems in place.
The rapid growth from integrating agencies, combined with the need to modernize and enhance reliability in uncertain conditions, led DoIT to explore colocation and shortly thereafter BaaS options. As a core network node in its statewide broadband network, leveraging the TierPoint Baltimore data center became crucial to support critical state facilities and Maryland counties.
Modernization was the logical next step in DoIT's journey, which began decades ago with server rooms established in the 1990s. With the formation of the umbrella IT agency and increasing reliability concerns, partnering with TierPoint for colocation and storage services was a strategic move.
Regulatory compliance is also a key concern for any government entity. Legislative auditors require adherence to standards such as SOC 2 Type 2, ensuring that environments needing federal audits, like those handling tax data, remain compliant. TierPoint’s state-of-the-art facilities are fully compliant with these stringent requirements, providing DoIT with the guarantee that their critical data is securely managed and protected.
Results
Since establishing colocation with TierPoint and implementing TierPoint’s BaaS with Pure Storage offering, DoIT has seen its subscription grow three to four times. Backup operation and restorations are now significantly faster across all agencies, resulting in improved performance and increased peace of mind.
A recent major security vendor outage required DoIT to quickly recover machines, testing TierPoint's capabilities. Previously, restoring virtual machines took considerable time to become operational. Fortunately, DoIT discovered that smaller machines backed-up by TierPoint’s BaaS were restored in about 15 minutes. Mike Price stated, "We are very pleased with our current setup and eagerly anticipate installing another dedicated Pure Storage array at the BWI location. This expansion not only supports our current growth but also positions us well for the future increases we anticipate. The speed of replication has been exceptional, providing us with clean backups for restores, which themselves are remarkably quick. All of these factors contribute to the high performance we're experiencing, allowing us to meet and exceed our operational needs.”
Looking ahead, DoIT is evaluating further development of its partnership with TierPoint by expanding outside of the Mid-Atlantic footprint, adding geographic resiliency for enhanced disaster recovery. This potential expansion is expected to include a managed Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution from TierPoint, further strengthening their business continuity strategy.
As several Maryland state agencies also faced challenges in meeting growing demands, TierPoint extended an invitation for them to tour its facilities. During their visit, they were highly impressed by TierPoint's robust security measures, cutting-edge infrastructure, and the overall excellence of its data center environment. This positive experience prompted swift decisions to collaborate with MD DoIT, leveraging the existing infrastructure at TierPoint to further enhance their IT capabilities.
Darrell Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer, considers TierPoint an integral part of DoIT's growth, describing them as "raving fans" due to the staff's friendliness, knowledge, and proactive assistance. To Darrell, TierPoint is seen as an extension of their team. If your organization is seeking to modernize, we can assist you at any stage of the process. To learn more about colocation, backup as a service, storage as a service with Pure Storage offerings, disaster recovery services, and more, reach out to our team today.
At A Glance
Industry
Government
Technology
Colocation, Backup as a Service (BaaS), and Storage as a Service with Pure Storage (STaaS)
Challenges
As the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) engaged in modernizing its IT operations, it encountered the challenge of consolidating IT infrastructures and services across various state agencies. This initiative required scaling its infrastructure to support growing demands, while simultaneously ensuring that security and compliance along with technical standards were upheld and implemented in a cost-effective manner.
Solution
To address the pressing need for modernization and scalable infrastructure, DoIT pursued a colocation facility capable of supporting agency growth and streamlining operations. Engaging with TierPoint and utilizing their colocation, BaaS, and STaaS with Pure Storage offerings, DoIT successfully modernized its IT infrastructure, consolidated resources, and boosted the overall performance of its infrastructure. This collaboration also enabled the department to provide enhanced services, including improved security and advanced storage solutions.
Results
Since implementing the modernized IT solutions with TierPoint, DoIT has achieved significant infrastructure performance improvements and faster backup operations and recovery times. This modernization has proven invaluable, especially during a recent crisis, highlighting the reliability and efficiency of TierPoint’s BaaS offering.
Solution
The Maryland Department of Information Technology recognized the need for comprehensive support beyond merely consolidating agencies under one roof. This included addressing staffing, power, cooling, security expansion, workspace, failover testing, and accessibility requirements associated with an offsite data center. By opting for colocation, DoIT successfully relocated its equipment to a new environment, facilitating modernization and allowing for seamless upgrades as they expanded into this new space. This strategic move not only provided room for growth but also enabled the addition of more agencies under their 'umbrella,' enhancing their operational capabilities and fostering collaboration.
DoIT's collaboration with TierPoint began with establishing a presence in the Baltimore data center. Initially, backups were managed by a different contractor, but as DoIT's hardware became outdated, they transitioned to a hybrid approach utilizing both Backup as a Service and Pure Storage. At the Baltimore site, this upgrade resulted in a "fantastic increase in backup speeds, with performance improving by four times, including significantly faster restore speeds" said Mike Price, Manager of Backup Operations.
By leveraging a consolidated offering of high-quality, enterprise-grade hardware, DoIT achieved economies of scale, eliminating the need for each agency to purchase its own equipment and resources. Colocation and BaaS with Pure Storage enabled DoIT to aggregate services, with colocation serving as the backbone for enhancing state agency services.
State agencies rely on DoIT for hosting services, eliminating capital outlay and saving time and resources that would otherwise be spent negotiating with vendors, refreshing equipment, and maintaining individual infrastructures. This approach not only promotes financial efficiency, optimizing the use of taxpayer dollars, but also enables agencies to pay for what they need by right-sizing scalable solutions without over-provisioning, further enhancing overall efficiency.
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