National Registration Department of Malaysia boosts availability with IBM

Established in 1948, the National Registration Department of Malaysia (Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara Malaysia, or JPN) is the government agency responsible for registering important demographic events such as births, deaths, adoptions, marriages and divorces; and issues identity cards to those eligible. Employing over 3,000 people, JPN is headquartered in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

As the custodian of Malaysia’s population data, JPN receives large numbers of statistical queries and requests for data extraction from various ministries and governmental departments. Dealing with these manually was a difficult and time consuming administrative exercise. To accelerate processing and ease the administrative burden, JPN custom-built a sophisticated application referred to as the Statistics and Data Extraction Request Management System (SAL), designed to automatically manage, calculate and distribute responses to data extraction and statistical requests.

The existing infrastructure, based on a desktop machine proved not powerful enough to reliably support the new application, causing access issues and slow response times.

Laila Binti Abdul Majid, Chief Assistant Director at JPN, explains, “We were receiving complaints about the system crashing while users were halfway through a query, losing valuable data. Very slow response times led some users to avoid using the application, preferring to manually handle the requests. We simply could not afford these kind of delays. Information stored in the system is urgently needed to be supplied to the agencies or ministries due to urgent request from key agencies like the Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament and Ministries.

Azlina Binti Ali, Senior IT Officer at JPN continues, “As a new application, users eagerly wanted to use the system. With increasing number of requests from various agencies, SAL provides a highly efficient task distribution system and eases the user burden in tracking all requests. With high access from users they often found themselves unable to do so because of unreliable access to the SAL application, causing significant frustration. We knew that the issue was not with the application itself but the underlying platform, and began seeking a cost-effective alternative that would allow users to make the most of SAL.”

Moving to open source technology
JPN began considering a pioneering move to Linux on the IBM mainframe, in order to take advantage of the low cost and extensive support resources for open source technology, while enjoying ultra-high performance.

By selecting a new IBM System z10 Business Class (BC) running the z/OS operating system to handle existing workload, JPN was also able to activate an IBM Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) engine to provide a highly available environment for new SUSE Linux Enterprise Server workloads. The entire project was completed on time, within four months, and with the technical implementation conducted in just two weeks.

By migrating its SAL application to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, JPN would become the first in Malaysia to deploy Linux on System z.

“We knew being the first in Malaysia to move to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on System z was a move not without its risks,” comments Nurul Ashikin Binti Subli, Deputy IT Director at JPN. “But after attending a number of seminars run by IBM we decided the potential benefits far outweighed the risks. A general governmental policy encouraging the use of open source software also encouraged us to break new ground, harnessing the advantages of Linux whilst gaining the super-fast processing power of IBM System z10.”

Enjoying the benefits
Since the implementation, JPN has experienced no major issues in its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on System z environment. The industry-leading reliability and stability offered by the IBM System z10 have enabled JPN to run the SAL application 24/7 for the first time, as support staff are no longer required to deal with outages and interruptions to service.

“Our IT staff’s workload has been eased considerably since the deployment of the IBM System z10,” says Laila Binti Abdul Majid. “Whereas previously much of their time was taken up with dealing with user complaints and crashes to the SAL application, now we can focus on other more productive work and simply trust the IBM solution to consistently perform.”

Naziha Hifziani Binti Sapari, IT Officer continues, “Compared to the previous infrastructure, since July 2010, response times have improved dramatically - both for our existing mainframe systems and for the new workload on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. It is now so much quicker to use the SAL application than to perform queries manually. Our entire workforce has been converted and 100 percent now use SAL.”

Unsurprisingly, employee satisfaction rates have increased significantly, as users no longer have to deal with the frustration of the SAL application crashing halfway through an operation, losing important data in the process. Data is no longer stored on individual desktop machines, but centralized on the IBM System z10 server, avoiding duplication and errors.

“We estimate employee productivity has increased by 50 percent since the implementation of the IBM solution,” says Laila Binti Abdul Majid. “With the SAL application performing to its full potential, crucial information is available 24/7, just a few mouse clicks away. User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

The Linux on System z environment is highly secure and virus resistant, protecting the confidential data of Malaysia’s citizens. By consolidating multiple processes to the single IBM System z10 BC server, JPN has cut maintenance costs significantly.

Nurul Ashikin Binti Subli adds, “We are very proud to be known as the first in Malaysia to embrace Linux on System z, and the success of this project has led to extensive plans to develop this environment further in the future. Indeed, we are aiming to deploy our next nationwide application early next year, and hope to represent a leading example to other government agencies and businesses in Malaysia.”

“Adopting Linux on System z has allowed us to enjoy many benefits,” explains Zakaria Awi, IT Director at JPN. “It is both secure and highly cost-effective, as we are capitalizing on investments already made, and both these features are big concerns for a government department like JPN. Moreover, the SAL application was developed fully in-house using 100 percent license-free software, supporting the government’s open source policy.”

“Running the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) SAL application on SUSE Enterprise Linux once again highlights the heterogeneity and flexibility that Linux offers,” concludes Jean Staten Healy, IBM Director of worldwide Linux Strategy and Marketing. “The JPN team has done a superb job in executing the first cross-platform application in Malaysia running on Linux on System z. IBM congratulates the team on this ‘first’ for Malaysia.”