Contents | January 2006 | Volume 1, Issue 1

• Texas Shared Services – The Big Picture
• Data Center Consolidation
• Focus on Employees
• What is the Scope?
• Key Dates
• Participating Agencies

Texas Shared Services—The Big Picture

The 79th Texas Legislative Session ushered in a new focus on technology collaboration. Through HB1516, the governor and state legislature directed agencies to take an enterprise approach to managing the state’s investment in information and communications technology.

Data center and disaster recovery services are one of the first areas for enterprise-wide coordination. On a scale not seen before in Texas, twenty-seven agencies—representing some of the state’s largest data center environments—will consolidate to gain economies of scale, share resources, and improve security and disaster recovery capability. This important project will raise the bar for infrastructure services in Texas and allow agencies to enjoy high-quality service at an affordable price.

This newsletter introduces the data center project. It will be published bimonthly, providing updates and status on this significant project.

Data Center Consolidation

The Texas State Data Center (TxSDC) was established in 1996 to provide a secure operational environment for agency data center services. Some agencies have moved all or part of their data center operations to the TxSDC. However, migration has occurred on a case-by-case basis without benefit of broader coordination or true consolidation. With the passage of HB1516, Texas will approach data center services from a statewide perspective and accelerate the process of data center consolidation.

The goals of data center consolidation are simple: share resources to reduce costs while maintaining or improving service levels. To achieve these goals, DIR is leading a statewide project to build a shared service data center system. The system will be operated by a private-sector service provider selected through a competitive procurement. This approach allows the state to minimize risk and capital expense while upgrading facilities and consolidating services. Agencies will be able to purchase only the services they need from a provider, much like a utility.

The data center consolidation project began in August with the formation of the Data Center Consolidation Advisory Committee. This group of thirty Information Technology (IT) Directors from participating agencies began by establishing the Guiding Principles for consolidation, which describe the committee’s role and outline the collaborative philosophy of the project. The Advisory Committee meets weekly to discuss current status of the project and provide agency input to the process.

Agencies have also been involved with workgroups and the extensive data collection and validation required by the consolidation. More than 200 staff have generously given their time serving on technical, financial, human resource, and federal funds workgroups to determine scope of shared services, document financial requirements, and provide recommendations for affected staff. An interagency team will also help develop the Request for Offer (RFO) and evaluate bidder responses. Their contributions are instrumental to project success.

Focus on Employees

As the state prepares to issue an RFO to consolidate, optimize, and operate the state’s data centers, the first question on many minds is, “What will happen to the employees?” Texas has many dedicated and talented technology employees who manage and support the data center infrastructure. While many details are yet to be determined, one thing is certain—human resource (HR) requirements will be an important part of the process.

Although transferring data center operations to a service provider will reduce state jobs, DIR will require the selected service provider to make comparable employment offers to affected staff. A workgroup of state agency HR Directors will help develop the HR-related requirements of the RFO and compare the employment packages in the responses with the state’s total employment package. These assessments will be an important part of evaluating RFO responses and contribute to determining the service provider.

The state hopes many employees will consider working for the service provider—who wants and needs their knowledge and skills. In turn, state employees may find expanded career opportunities and increased exposure to leading technologies working for a company that specializes in infrastructure services.

The specific list of positions by agency to be assumed by the service provider has not yet been finalized. The scope of consolidated services (see What is the Scope?) is a general reference. Each affected agency will work closely with DIR to determine what positions are included in its consolidation and how to handle roles which span services that are in- and out-of-scope.

DIR and the involved agencies will communicate regularly with potentially affected employees throughout the process. The DIR Website contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions and other useful information about the data center project. Employees are encouraged to contact their HR Representative or IT Director for more information. Further details will be published on the DIR Website as they become known.

What is the Scope?

Texas information technology includes a broad range of services required to support agency missions and serve citizens. Technical workgroups staffed from all participating agencies tackled the challenge of assessing where agency services begin and data center services end. This work has been aligned with industry standard towers (groupings of similar services), reviewed with the Advisory Committee, and finalized by DIR for publication in the RFO. The final list of services to be provided by the selected service provider will be determined through a rigorous evaluation and negotiation process.

Statewide Data Services Include:

• Mainframe hardware and operating system installation, support, maintenance
• Mainframe software installation, support, maintenance for specified products/categories (DB2, CICS, IMS, RACF, etc.)
• Mainframe system programming for all in-scope mainframe software

• Server hardware and operating system installation, support, maintenance
• Server software installation, support, maintenance for specified products/categories (Oracle, email, DNS, etc.)
• System administration for all in-scope server software
• Remote server administration
• Server support for mobile access devices (PDA, Blackberry, etc.)

• Computer operations and monitoring
• Production control (batch scheduling, job scheduling)
• Storage management (disk, tape)
• Disaster recovery backups and offsite tape storage
• Physical database administration (prod, test, dev)
• Data center print services (printer operations, reports staging for distribution, ordering paper, special forms, etc., inserts and bulk print mailings)
• Facility and environmental support
• Capacity planning
• Disaster recovery planning and testing for all data center services
• Business continuity planning (service provider processes)
• Support center (for in-scope data center services)
• Hardware/software procurement for in-scope services

• Vulnerability/threat/virus support
• Security software installation and maintenance
• Physical security

Agency Retained Services Include:

• Desktop support and maintenance (including desktop software)
• Desktop break-fix
• Desktop anti-virus support and maintenance
• Desktop and non-data center network printers
• Mobile access devices (PDA, Blackberry, etc.)
• Multi-function LAN-attached copier/scanner/fax machines

• LAN support and maintenance
• WAN support and maintenance
• Voice/phone support and maintenance

• Help desk (Tier I - all services, Tier II - retained services, Tier III - retained services)
• Technology planning, strategies, and visioning
• Project management
• Disaster recovery planning and testing for all retained services
• Business continuity planning (agency processes)
• Specialized servers (lab, environmental, etc.) - agencies may elect to move these servers into the RFO scope
• Packaged imaging systems (scanners, servers, optical disks, etc.)

• Coordinating form changes with business units
• Volume trending

• Data security
• Security design and policy development
• Systems access requests (directory/file, ID creation and removal, determination of access rights)

• All logical DBA functions
• Agency DBAs and developers will retain the authority and access rights to add/change/delete database objects in development and initial test environments

To Be Determined:

• List of in-scope software

Key Dates

• Data collection completed December 13, 2005
• Data verification December 13, 2005-February 3, 2006
• Request for Offer released March 31, 2006
• Pre-bid conferences April/May 2006
• Responses due May 15, 2006
• Due diligence August-October 2006
• Contract award December 2006 (tentative)
• Commencement Date March 2007 (tentative)
• (90 days after award)

Participating Agencies

HB1516 requires DIR to prioritize migration to the state data center based on the size of technology environment. Based on IT expenditures, the data center operations and disaster recovery services of the following agencies will be included in the RFO.

• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Information Resources
• General Land Office
• Health and Human Services (DADS, DARS, DFPS, DSHS, HHSC)
• Office of the Attorney General
• Parks and Wildlife Department
• Public Utility Commission of Texas
• Railroad Commission of Texas
• Secretary of State
• Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
• Texas Building and Procurement Commission
• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
• Texas Department of Criminal Justice
• Texas Department of Insurance
• Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
• Texas Department of Public Safety
• Texas Department of Transportation
• Texas Education Agency
• Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
• Texas State Library and Archives Commission
• Texas Water Development Board
• Texas Workforce Commission
• Texas Youth Commission

The service provider will assume responsibility for all in scope services and staff for participating agencies on the contract commencement date. Consolidation of equipment will occur according to the negotiated transition schedule.