Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1464865
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 APRIL 2022 12 COMMERCIAL MITA's involvement during the IN preparation for the recent Papal visit, MITA was engaged by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to provide IT services in various locations around Malta and Gozo. MI- TA's responsibilities included designing and implementing a secure and resilient wired and wireless infrastructure. Apart from setting up the required network infrastructure, MITA employees provided operation- al support to the journalists and delegates attending this event. One of the deliverables which MITA was entrusted with, was assisting the local host broad- caster PBS in setting up an in- ternational broadcast centre whereby video streams cap- tured by PBS employees from the various locations visited by the Pope could be shared with foreign broadcasters. The re- quired network connectivity to the foreign broadcasters cover- ing the event, amongst which RAI, Reuters, AP and Radio Vaticano was also provided. Given that the event took place less than a week after the general election, coordinat- ing the implementation of the required works and testing at the different locations in such a short period of time was ex- tremely challenging. Through- out this short time frame, net- work connectivity at two media centres, one at the Excelsior Hotel, which hosted 300 jour- nalists and the other close to the Ta' Pinu shrine which host- ed 150 journalists was provided. In addition, MITA provided the required services at two media stand-up platforms setup at the Granaries and at other locations visited by the Pope throughout the event. During such national events, it is of fundamental importance to design a network setup that caters for any possible failure. As a result, MITA employees deployed various redundan- cy mechanisms in the most important layers of the infra- structure. On the LAN side of things, a stack of aggregator switches connecting around 35 LAN switches together with two wireless controllers setup in high-availability mode con- trolling around 45 high density wireless access points were de- ployed. Multiple WAN connec- tivity links were then established via local service providers. Various MITA departments contributed to ensure the re- alisation of the deliverables assigned to MITA. The MITA Network Services team config- ured and installed the required wired and wireless network equipment whilst employees from the Information Securi- ty & Governance Department were continuously monitoring the infrastructure to mitigate possible security threats. On the other hand, MITA's Net- work Operation Centre mon- itored the infrastructure from a capacity and availability per- spective throughout the dura- tion of this event. In addition, various employees from the Service Management Depart- ment were present on-site dur- ing the event to assist journal- ists with their needs. Being part of the team that supports similar national events is always a rewarding expe- rience. When observing the logistics, the challenges and the motivation of each team mem- ber focused on the same goal, one cannot but feel a sense of satisfaction of having contrib- uted to the successful organ- isation of such a high-profile national event. Grixti Owen