More Security, Lower Costs for Kosovo’s Public Sector

Kosovo’s national data system is now more efficient, reliable, and safer because of a new data center, which concentrates the government’s information and communication technology onto a consolidated, protected server.  

The data center is part of a public sector modernization project, backed by the World Bank.

“We have installed new infrastructure in the network which guarantees 100% up time for the system, and we have significantly increased storage,” says Driton Hysenaj, Project Manager of the new data center.

In the past, Kosovo’s different government ministries used separate facilities for data storage - which were not in compliance with international standards and had a high risk of data loss, system failure, and interruption of services.

The new data center now consolidates much of the country’s public data on one national server, housed in Kosovo’s Ministry of Public Administration in the capital, Pristina.

The facility is protected by an energy-efficient cooling system, a state-of-the-art fire extinguishing system, and a new power station.

“The increased capacity of the data center raises the quality of our services and the security of the data that citizens get,” says Kujtim Gashi, General Director of the Agency of Information Society at Kosovo’s Ministry of Public Administration.

As a result of the new data center, he says, the online delivery of services by government ministries has improved, along with the government’s payroll system and its procurement web site.

State expenditures are expected to decrease by up to 40% as well.

“This is maybe the main benefit and the most important thing. Construction of this data center is very useful for decreasing budgets of other institutions.  The capacity of this data base fulfills the needs of Kosovo’s institutions and greatly reduces duplication of investments and expenses,” Gashi says.

Under a training component of the modernization project, technicians who are responsible for upkeep of the database were given classes in the most advanced methods of IT security. 

“I used a tool that I learned - Nessus, an application for vulnerability scanning - and I scanned our network,” says Mubekir Beqiri, one of the data system’s administrators who received training.

Bashkim Iballi has worked as a public servant for a decade and says he will always remember the days before the new data center, when the old system would collapse due to overheating and other mishaps. 

“Most officials were left without any kind of communication and couldn’t access their emails when the system would break,” he says, adding that the new data system will prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.