OREANDA-NEWS. September 18, 2009. I.T. Co. has completed a consulting project for the Siberian Research and Development Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineral Raw Materials. This project involved examining and managing the development of the institute’s existing IT infrastructure and business processes. The result is a program aimed at streamlining the IT infrastructure and the corporate policy on software licensing.

In order to engage in modern geological, geophysical and seismological studies, the Siberian R&D Institute makes use of a wide variety of IT solutions which have become more difficult to use efficiently due to the rapid growth of the IT infrastructure, and as solutions become more costly and more resource-hungry. Previously, the Institute’s different divisions would select, install, and use their own IT equipment and software, which meant that management of the Institute’s IT infrastructure was not centralized. Frequent bugs in the performance of the local computing network and low recovery of costs for repairs and upgrades for different IT infrastructure components were the main reasons why the Institute decided to conduct a thorough IT audit.

In early 2009, the Siberian R&D Institute held a tender, and I.T. Co. was selected to run the project. In addition to scrutinizing the IT infrastructure, I.T. Co. was also asked to draft a program to improve it. The project began with an audit, which was conducted in line with the provisions set out in the internationally recognized CobIT framework. The project also involved an extensive inspection of the local computing network, telecommunications and server equipment, the database system, software, IT infrastructure management processes, and information security provisions.

Based on the results of the audit, I.T. Co.’s specialists worked with the Institute’s staff to draft a detailed program aimed at optimizing the IT infrastructure. The program covers a period up to late 2012 — early 2013. This IT strategy was prepared based on the Institute’s current and planned business tasks, the existing IT infrastructure, and the development trends in information technology in general. A corporate policy on licensing software was also drawn up.

This project has provided the Institute’s management with a detailed plan of action for developing the IT infrastructure as a whole and its individual components (telecommunications and server equipment, software, etc.), while factoring in a policy on information security.

Alexander Gert, the Deputy General Director of the Siberian Research and Development Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineral Raw Materials, stated: “The development of strategic documents is always a special project. Thanks to the close collaboration between the Institute’s staff and the experts at I.T. Co., we now have a clear-cut development program that will help us considerably improve the manageability, performance, and reliability of our Institute’s IT infrastructure.”

About the Siberian Research and Development Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineral Raw Materials (a state-run unitary enterprise)

The Siberian Research and Development Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineral Raw Materials is the largest R&D Institute east of the Urals focusing on scientifically substantiated exploration for deposits of mineral resources in Siberia and the Far East, technical support and data support for exploration works, and financial assessments of geological exploration projects.