A hardware failure at the State Data Centre (SDC) under the Kerala IT Mission led to the e-office system in the State going down for three days, affecting all file movements.
The system was restored partially on Monday, but the officials are yet to ascertain the reasons for the backup hardware system too collapsing. With the shift to paperless offices in recent years, with an aim for transparency and efficiency, much of the file handling in various departments is being done through the e-office system.
The e-office system came to a standstill on Friday, following a hardware failure. The Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) had also remained inaccessible. Though the technical team managed to solve the issue initially, the system crashed again. It was brought back to a partially stable position on Monday, but the technical team as well the senior government officials were involved in analyses and discussions through the day to ascertain the cause for the major glitch. Although the e-office system had suffered outages in the past, it is for the first time that the system has remained out of order for such an extended period.
According to a senior official at the SDC, more analyses will need to be conducted to zero in on the exact problem.
“Currently, we have an understanding of which hardware the failure has occurred in. Usually, a backup system takes over when there is a hardware failure. But, in this case, this backup hardware system also failed. It is a situation in which we cannot easily guess the problem as it has now behaved in an unexpected manner. We will probably have to look through the logs and also consult external experts for this,” said the official.
The e-office application has been deployed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), while the IT Mission is the implementing agency in the State. More than 90% of the files in the State Secretariat, collectorates and commissionerates are now being handled through the e-office system.
