Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1517916
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 MARCH 2024 6 COMMERCIAL Malta Government Network (MAGNET) Tech Refresh Project THE MITA Network Engineer- ing Services team is responsi- ble for the design, implemen- tation and upkeep of the Malta Government Network which is also known as MAGNET. Each Government site is equipped with a fibre connection which is secured with firewalls in- stalled at each location. MI- TA currently manages around three hundred (380) remote MAGNET connections. For re- dundancy purposes, MAGNET sites can be equipped with ei- ther a single fibre connection or dual fibres. However, both options offer a degree of redun- dancy by each having a prima- ry and secondary logical link. Over the years, the MAGNET network grew exponentially. As a result, the current setup was nearing a design overhaul and technical refresh. The overall scope of the project was to in- crease the capacity, bandwidth, and security of the existing network. This is in line with MITA's commitment to con- tinuously improve the service offered. The project was divided in three phases. Due to an in- crease in demand for band- width, phase one needed the lo- cal service provider to upgrade equipment installed at both MITA's Data Centres. The up- grade was carried out through the installation of new equip- ment while at the same time keeping the older equipment operational. This would later allow us to operate the old in- frastructure in parallel with the new one. This upgrade by the local service provider allowed us to double the port capacity. Throughout the first phase, focus was also given to the planning and design of a sim- plified core network setup. This allowed new core equip- ment to be installed in our Data Centres for the seamless con- nection of the new service pro- vider to our core equipment. The new infrastructure allowed the bandwidth capability to in- crease from 1Gbps to 10Gbps per port. In the next phase, the config- uration on the new core equip- ment was implemented whilst keeping the existing setup op- erational. Testing was carried out in a lab environment to guarantee the planned design was fit for purpose. We also sought to optimise the resourc- es we have by balancing traffic on both primary and secondary links. An improvement was also carried out by creating a script to facilitate the migration of re- mote connections using stand- ardised templates. The script allowed an automated process of configuration creation with minimal user input, to mini- mise human error. This auto- mated process enabled us to configure a new firewall in a matter of minutes. The last phase of the project was the actual migration of the Government site connec- tions onto the new setup. A maintenance schedule with all stakeholders was established so that the three hundred and eighty (380) fibre connections were connected with the least disruptiveness. Over the course of eight months all connections were successfully migrated on- to the new setup. The migra- tion process also served to test the redundancy each connec- tion has, and any issues identi- fied were promptly rectified. The project was a success sto- ry and was implemented ahead of schedule. This allowed the decommission of the current setup equipment on a timely manner. We now have a setup in place which caters for future growth. The new setup allows the possibility to easily increase bandwidth with our service providers. Also, the security posture was improved using new security features. The project was a success story and was implemented ahead of schedule. This allowed the decommission of the current setup equipment on a timely manner Joseph Ryan Vella