https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE Expo
    • Calendar of Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Smart Cities & Technology


City invests in hardware to prepare for e-gov

City invests in hardware to prepare for e-gov

Minneapolis has upgraded its technology infrastructure to better accommodate its desktop applications and to provide extensive online services. The low-maintenance
  • Written by American City & County Administrator
  • 1st April 2002

Minneapolis has upgraded its technology infrastructure to better accommodate its desktop applications and to provide extensive online services. The low-maintenance servers will help the city streamline its computing environment.

Minneapolis’s impetus for updating its infrastructure grew out of its desire to provide residents with a flexible and accessible way to obtain information. Typically, if residents need information about vital records, public transportation, building permits, community services and hundreds of other government services, they need to visit the appropriate government buildings during normal business hours. That form of service delivery is prohibitive for many people, so the city wanted to move many of those services to the Internet.

About a year-and-a-half ago, the city began planning for an extensive e-government project, which will move as many services online as possible. During the early phases of planning, project developers realized that the city’s IT infrastructure lacked the power needed to put services online. Additionally, the city had more than 90 servers; if the city wanted to provide online services around the clock, the cost of supporting all of that equipment would be prohibitive.

Late last year, the city purchased two ES7000 servers from Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys to replace some of its servers. One server is dedicated to handling e-government transactions, and the other is consolidating City Hall’s applications, such as e-mail, data communications and desktop management, on a single platform. Now, the city’s IT staff will be able to access and manage between 10 and 20 applications on a single server.

“It was important for us to identify a hardware solution that could scale up to meet our online transaction processing demands as well as solve some of our real-life network infrastructure challenges,” says Chief Information Officer Karl Kaiser. “When looking at hardware alternatives, we searched for a versatile platform that could consolidate multiple applications, handle heavy workloads and provide 24/7 availability.”

The city has begun migrating applications onto the equipment, and it expects the city council and mayor’s office employees to be using the server’s desktop applications by the end of the month. In addition, the city is using the equipment to accept job applications and online payments for utilities, and it posts all property information on the Internet.

By the beginning of next year, the city will offer one-stop permitting through its Web site. It also is planning to create a 311 center for city information, which would be available via telephone and the Web.

Tags: Smart Cities & Technology

Most Recent


  • artificial intelligence
    Artificial intelligence for cities and counties
    It appears that artificial intelligence (AI) is everything, everywhere and in every product the vendor community would have us buy. However, despite the hype, few dismiss it as just another high-tech fad. Indeed, some believe it is the third (or fourth) wave, depending on how one is counting in the ever-evolving digital age. As early […]
  • dashboards
    Dashboards and software help simplify financial funding and reporting for cities and counties
    Governments are streamlining management of federal funds through technology, says Mike Bell, CEO of Envisio, which provides public dashboards, analytics and performance management software. About 150 local government, education and nonprofit organizations use his firm’s solutions to manage their strategic plans, improve performance and report on results. Envisio is helping local government agencies to satisfy […]
  • traffic
    Reimagining how cities can leverage holistic platforms for urban mobility solutions
    When it comes to designing transit and transportation solutions that reduce traffic congestion and improve on-time arrival rates, we seem to have a problem. It seems we are focused on all the wrong things. It’s not all about building a better vehicle, or the technology that is used inside the vehicle. And it’s not about […]
  • data
    Data: Your most overlooked asset
    If asked to think of a community’s most important assets, many would likely start by naming road networks, bridges, buildings, or possibly even transit and sanitary systems. But would data ever come to mind? As the foundation of everything, data is a vital asset—especially for public sector organizations. In order to have confidence in the […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • MS-ISAC members get free access to Deloitte’s Cyber Detect and Respond Portal to help respond to cyber threats
  • North Texas alliance partners with Marketplace.city on smart government solutions
  • Harris County deploys next-generation security in 150 public buildings
  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery

White papers


7 Resources to Level-up Your Federal Grants Administration and Compliance

5th September 2023

Elevator Phone Line Replacement Strategy | A Guide to Reliable, Code-Compliant Solutions

29th August 2023

2023 State of Public Sourcing Report: The Bright Future of Public Procurement

23rd August 2023
view all

Webinars


Grant Preparedness: Unlocking Funding Opportunities for Your Success

10th August 2023

2023 State of Public Sourcing: Taking Local Governments into a Bright Future

1st August 2023

Stop Playing with Fire: How to Manage Infrastructure Asset Risk So You Know You’re Covered

20th June 2023
view all

PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

GALLERIES


10 Safest Cities from Natural Disasters

29th September 2023

Gallery: Hottest temperatures recorded in American cities during July

12th September 2023

The top 10 Asthma Capitals for 2023

7th September 2023
view all

Twitter


Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.