When South Africans went to the polls on 2 June for the second time in the post-apartheid era, they found one of the most sophisticated computer systems in place to assist them and help ensure that the election was free and fair according to international standards.
A modern computer network infrastructure, which covered the country, had been designed and implemented. The R47 million project, awarded to JSE-listed Datacentrix and its black empowerment partners by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), linked the IEC`s nine Provincial Electoral Offices and more than 500 Local Electoral Offices and polling stations by satellite technology.
The tender was jointly awarded to Datacentrix and Kwetliso. The consortium utilised Ariel Technologies as main installation contractor and the following small, mini and micro business enterprises (SMMEs) to ensure that the specified service levels could be attained countrywide:
Langraphix, Axion, Micro Tech, ACL, Ubuntu, PDK, DTP, Camelot. These partners were also responsible for installation of the remote sites.
A further tender was awarded to a Datacentrix / Yashu consortium for the supply and installation of Hewlett-Packard servers at IEC head office. These servers formed the nucleus of the IEC network.
In addition, the IEC had built a state-of-the-art infrastructure - the IEC Results Centre - which was integrated into the network infrastructure. This Centre collated and verified the regional results and enabled direct radio and TV broadcasts of election news to South Africa and the rest of the world. The centre catered for more than 500 operators.
Initial elements of the computer system were completed some months ago in order to help compile the national voters role, as required by constitutional law.
The final phases of the project were completed in time for pilot testing on 26 May, one week before Election Day.
According to Datacentrix`s executive director, Klaas Lammers, a number of challenges were posed by the project. "Firstly, this was the first election to be held anywhere in the world where all election points were networked.
The vast geographical spread, necessary to ensure all citizens could register and vote, was a major design concern. The time frame and mission critical participation of all involved parties was a challenge"
"And secondly, the mission critical nature of the network presented us with both design and resource challenges."
The network is a permanent fixture, as the IEC Local Election Offices could be used for municipal elections in future - and possibly the next census.
Technical details
The first element of the infrastructure to be completed was the IEC head office building in Pretoria, where a switched network, featuring a Cabletron 1GB Fibre backbone, served the seven-floor complex.
Each floor has its own dedicated workgroup switch. Rack mounted file servers run the Microsoft NT operating system. One of the biggest GIS (Graphical Information System) networks in the southern hemisphere was also connected to the IEC network and used for the delimitation of voting districts. The GIS required high data throughput and reliability.
The head office is an all-Microsoft solution (running NT, SQL, Exchange, Office and other offerings). HP File servers are all rack-mounted with RAID and external Auto RAID facilities complemented by a high-end HP backup solution.
Thereafter 523 separate local infrastructures were installed at specified sites countrywide. These sites, initially used for voter registration, were categorised and prioritised into A, B and C class sites - where a C site was a significant polling station or IEC office in a major city, and an A class site a small, rurally situated polling station.
Most sites consisted of up to three workstations connected to a PES (Personal Earth Station) satellite transmitter connected to Telkom`s VSAT satellite in earth orbit above South Africa.
Each C-class site consisted of 10 to 20 workstations, a network hub and a Hewlett-Packard file server connected to the PES unit. UPS protection was also standard at these sites.
Each B-grade site consisted of three or more workstations with a network hub. One HP Vectra workstation was used as the host with two network cards installed: one NIC to the hub and the other to the PES unit.
Results centre
The Results Centre was an all-HP solution featuring this vendor`s file servers, workstations, networking and high-speed printers. Specifically, it consisted of twenty HP file servers with a switched HP network.
All equipment was redundant and protected by UPSs. Six hundred HP Vectra workstations were connected to the network with redundant links between switches.
The Result Centre was connected to the head office and to the remote sites to facilitate data gathering.
Support
Datacentrix and its partners provided comprehensive support and maintenance services. According to agreements in place, remote sites country wide were covered by a 4 hour mean time to repair (MTTR) guarantee which was in force during the registration period and for election day.
The Results Centre was covered by a 2-hour MTTR warranty.
Datacentrix and its partners had engineers on site during the election period.
Closing
"Datacentrix and its partners are extremely proud to have been part of this extremely challenging and mission critical infrastructure solution. We have not failed our customers, the South African voters," added Lammers.
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