KOTA SAMARAHAN, Sept 24: In view of the state’s digital economy aspiration, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) is collaborating with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to develop a Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) here.
Unimas vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi said this would allow Unimas and UMS to have high availability of critical Information Technology (IT) services and maintain business continuity should a disaster happen to the university’s current data centre at its campus here.
Kadim said with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU), the two universities would be able to collaborate and help each other to elevate the level of expertise in the IT field, emphasising on DRC.
“The DRC is a critical requirement for any organisation to guarantee the high availability of IT services.
“The idea of this reciprocal approach between Unimas and UMS is the result of a roundtable session between the Ministry of Education, public universities Chief Information Officers and Public Higher Learning Institutions ICT board of directors on October 22-23 last year.
“Subsequently, Unimas and UMS held a discussion to pursue the matter,” he said, before the MoU signing ceremony at Unimas here this morning.
Apart from the DRC collaboration, Kadim also hoped it would help create a new breed of transboundary working culture between Sarawak and Sabah that would contribute to innovation and knowledge creation among IT professionals.
UMS vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Kamarudin Mudin said UMS had a very limited ICT facility, and it had just established its data and information centre last year.
He hoped that by collaborating with Unimas, which had already established its ICT facility for a long time, UMS would be able to improve its facility to enable it to also offer IT services to other agencies in Sabah.
“I hope more collaborations will be done between the two Borneon universities in the future and would make Unimas and UMS as catalysts in DRC services for other agencies in Borneo.
“This, in turn, would improve the perception on IT services and expertise by public universities to the community,” said Kamarudin. — DayakDaily
