September 19, 2008

 

 

IST has established a disaster recovery capability for its primary computer environment and "Tier One" business applications. The disaster recovery site is at MCNC Corporation, located at Research Triangle Park in Durham. In the event of a disaster or other disruption to County computer operations (e.g., flood, fire), the Tier 1 applications can be activated at RTP within 48 hours to assure continuity of County services. Tier 1 applications are those considered most essential for the County to provide baseline customer service and operational integrity. Examples of Tier 1 applications include but are not limited to the County's financial system, property and tax systems, code enforcement system, email and others. Next steps will include identifying additional applications that should be added to the site, consistent with budgeted funds.

 

Concurrent with establishing this disaster recovery capability, several County departments have been developing business continuity plans that can be used in conjunction with disaster recovery, to assure continuity of services to customers. These business continuity plans will be used in the next series of disaster recovery testing.

 

MCNC only serves educational and government institutions. Therefore it provided the necessary communications and hosting environment far below prevailing market rates. In addition, IST used advanced virtualization technology that maximizes the use of the computer hardware, making this approach feasible and affordable for the County.

 

For more information, please contact IST Director Jerry Pinkard, 704-336-6862.

 

 

Earlier this month, CharMeck311 began servicing customer calls for the County's Land Use & Environmental Services Agency (LUESA) and for our Geospatial Information Services (GIS). This is consistent with our phased approach to integrating County service calls within the CharMeck311 system.

 

A team of 311 and County staff have been working the past several months on call mapping for inquiries such as maps and land records, recycling, and landfills. LUESA and GIS join Tax Collections and Park & Recreation as the County departments/services fully integrated with CharMeck311.

 

CharMeck311 is jointly funded by the City of Charlotte and County, and operated by City staff. It is a 24/7 operation 365 days a year. CharMeck311 also offers online services at http://311.CharMeck.org.

 

During FY08, CharMeck311 handled 1.7 million customer calls, of which 356,000 were for County services. LUESA and GIS calls will likely push the County's annual volume over the 500,000 mark during this fiscal year.

 

For more information, please contact Brian Cox, eGovernment/Customer Service Manager, 704-336-2576.