Govt expects much from Fujitsu link-up

Trinidad Express, Monday, September 14th 2009

Technology giant Fujitsu has opened its doors in Barataria with a multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art centre geared to place this country as the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) hub of the Caribbean.

The Government has already partnered with Fujitsu, which will be playing a key role in the modernisation of the public sector and various Ministries.

At the launch on Wednesday, Government Ministers Kennedy Swaratsingh, Mariano Browne and Dr Lenny Saith were present in a show of support.

Swaratsingh, who delivered the feature address, disclosed that Fujitsu has also been mandated to establish a data centre at e-Teck's Tamana park. He said this project, scheduled to be launched in early 2011, will also provide services such as co-location, back-up, storage and disaster recovery.

Swaratsingh added that Fujitsu, in collaborative efforts with TSTT and the Government, is working toward the construction of the first iteration of the Government Wide Area Network (GovNeTT). This $110 million contract was sealed last year.

GovNeTT, he said, would provide a sound inter-operability framework which allows a seamless integration of Government applications, reduced operational costs through shared services and standardisation and increased efficiency of Government operations.

Mervyn Eyre, chief executive officer (CEO) of Fujitsu (Caribbean), boasted of the high-tech services which Fujitsu would offer.

Referring to the data centre to be established in the Tamana park, he said, "This facility represents an important step in the development of Fujitsu's global assets and capabilities, where the potential exists for services to be outsourced to Trinidad as a nearshore facility in meeting the needs of its customers across the Americas."

"Trinidad and Tobago is important to the world's third largest IT services company and that Fujitsu has differentiated itself by deciding to invest in the future," he continued.

"For the first time in the Caribbean, government and enterprise now have the option to acquire IT capabilities as a managed service instead of having to go through the daunting task of having to buy, build, own and operate for every new need that arises," Eyre added.

He explained that Ministries would not longer have to each spend capital to build facilities themselves, instead, critical servers and storage can be hosted in highly secure environments monitored on a continuous basis.

"In an environment faced with economic challenges this facility delivers tangible savings to the Government by delivering more for less through shared services and practices," Eyre assured.

He said, as of Wednesday, from Fujitsu's Barataria centre, "Government networks are being monitored, applications are being hosted, school systems are being managed and new solutions being staged for rollout."

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