Project Updates
The eFORT Relocation Project team successfully migrated servers, hardware and applications for the DOC on May 13 and GOV and DPA on May 20. As of June 5, the project is 45% complete, and the team has emptied 55 of the 145 occupied racks at the eFORT Data Center.
The team will be back in action in July after spending the month of June performing some server maintenance!
Keep an eye out for updates on your agency as the team continues working to exit eFORT and identify systems, servers and hardware for decommissioning or migration to the cloud or the Lakewood Data Center. With each successful move out of eFORT, we are consolidating physical IT assets, expanding the use of cloud infrastructure, and becoming more efficient in how our state data is collected, stored and used.
Our reliance on video streaming, data-intensive applications and virtual collaboration has made faster internet necessary for state employees. Early yesterday morning, the OIT Network team successfully upgraded network services and architecture that increased internet bandwidth from 10 gb (gigabits) to 20 gb. This work decreases the chances of unplanned outages or slowness when using the internet at state offices or when connected to VPN.
The team is in the process of closing this project, and we’re happy to say this is nearly done. Here’s to a stronger and faster connection if you’re online in the office or connected to VPN!
 The state mainframe is a 30-year-old central data center housing millions of data points and linking computers and services throughout the state. It powers applications providing critical services to Coloradans, but this decades-old technology has become unreliable and expensive to maintain. To remove the risk of the mainframe failing and interrupting the delivery of critical services to Coloradans, OIT will shift to a cloud-based solution for mainframe storage and operations. Decommissioning the mainframe is the most important project in our work to remediate technical debt in state systems and applications.
As of June 1, 2023, the mainframe migration project is 44% complete. The migration cutover is scheduled for July 29, 2023, and the project is scheduled for completion by the end of summer 2023. To achieve that goal, OIT has identified key milestones for the July 29, 2023 migration date.
- The project team is currently working on operational readiness and data migration in preparation for the mock migration. Data migration involves the creation of a duplicate copy of all the operational data on the mainframe in the virtual (cloud) environment. This is a requirement to avoid interruption to mainframe operations.
- The mock migration testing plan has been shared with affected customers and OIT staff. The mock migration is scheduled from July 14 to July 27, 2023. A mock migration of the mainframe environment is a complete move to the new environment that maintains the existing state-hosted environment. This allows OIT to test the functionality of the new environment and ensure there are no known vulnerabilities before the actual migration.
- The official mainframe migration to the hosted environment will occur on July 29. During the cutover, mainframe production moves from the State of Colorado to our new cloud service vendor. A mainframe outage is scheduled for July 28 at 6 p.m. and July 31 at 8 a.m. The project team will contact affected customers and staff to provide additional information as this date approaches and will provide support before, during and in the days immediately following the cutover.
 The hosted mainframe migration and stabilization effort is the “lift and shift,” a copy of the current mainframe to a third-party cloud mainframe platform. After that is complete, our onsite mainframe will be decommissioned. This work is separate from the modernization projects. More information will be shared as plans come together for the modernization effort.
For more information on the migration and upcoming Q&A sessions, check out this month’s Hot Topics section below!
Cyberfusion Application Replacement with Managed File Transfer Application Project
This project is 69% complete, and the team is making solid progress toward replacing the Cyberfusion application with the Managed File Transfer (MFT) application. TIBCO Cyberfusion and all related jobs will be removed from the mainframe as part of the update to MFT, and MFT will be hosted in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. The team completed the configuration of VPN connectivity and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment. Firewall configuration and agency development work are underway to replace TIBCO Cyberfusion with Managed File Transfer (MFT).
The new TIBCO Managed File Transfer (MFT) application was installed in early June and is being tested with the Social Security Administration (SSA) on June 14. The team will also test the application with CDHS and CDLE in the next few weeks.
Once complete, this project will ensure that OIT and our customers are in compliance with the SSA’s requirements for managed file transfers of confidential federal and state data between agencies.
Stay tuned for more information coming soon!
The team is making significant progress, and the project is 69% complete. The vulnerability remediation for CDLE and GOV will wrap up on June 23. The project is now scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2023.
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