States’ IT offices contract out for voice, virtualization services

The respective information technology offices for the states of Mississippi and New York announced contracts for virtualization and voice services this week.

Mississippi’s Department of Information Technology Services (ITS) awarded a three-year contract with Infinite Group, Inc. (IGI) to provide virtualization services to state agencies, beginning this fall. The move is part of an overall strategy by the state to streamline operations and modernize statewide use of IT. According to IGI, Miss. state agencies can migrate applications into ITS’ virtual data center environments, where IGI will manage and implement server consolidations that migrate physical servers to virtual machines, using VMware vSphere technology.

“We are very pleased that the state of Mississippi has recognized IGI`s expertise in the virtualization arena,” said Jim Frost, IGI`s Chief Technology Officer. “Our team of VMware Certified Professionals is looking forward to engaging across a number of state agencies to deliver business benefits from virtualization technology.”

The first agency planning to utilize the new cloud computing service is the Mississippi Department of Human Services, with more agencies expected to follow as the physical footprint and energy-saving benefits of virtualization become realized. Other public entities will also be enabled to purchase virtualization services from IGI under the terms of the agreement.

New York’s Office of the Chief Information Officer/Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) also announced yesterday an agreement with PAETEC Holdings Corp. to deliver core voice services to state agencies one the state’s network. According to the company, the deal represents over six million minutes per month in voice services, the largest customer in PAETEC’s portfolio.

“Out of the 42 states which we serve, New York State is the largest for PAETEC and home both to our corporate headquarters and approximately 1,000 of our employees,” Kevin Errity, president of the east region for PAETEC, said in a statement.

CIO/OFT’s voice and data telecommunications systems support over 90,000 users and 10,000 teleconferences per year and the agency expects to save nearly $370,000 per year by outsourcing the local and long distance toll services provided from PAETEC.

“The need to increase government efficiency while reducing costs has come into
increasing focus with the recent fiscal crisis,” Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, New York State Chief Information Officer and Director of the Office for Technology, said in a statement. “PAETEC will enable the State of New York Office to demonstrate a significant cost savings while meeting the demands to deliver better core voice services to our customer agencies.”

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