Info Tech
HP to Replace Verizon in Hosting HealthCare.gov Website
WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services will replace Verizon Communications Inc’s Terremark subsidiary as its web-hosting provider for the federal health-insurance marketplace, according to people familiar with the matter, presenting a new challenge to the rollout of the Obama administration’s signature health-care initiative.
HHS won’t renew its contract with Terremark and instead awarded a new contract over the summer to Hewlett-Packard Co. to host the website, the people said.
The Terremark web-hosting data center hosts key elements of the federal site, HealthCare.gov, as well as a digital juncture used to exchange information between HealthCare.gov, state-run exchanges, federal agencies and insurers. The website, which serves 36 states, has experienced a number of technical problems since launching Oct. 1, including crashes that blocked consumers from enrolling in new health plans under the law and outages of Verizon’s data center.
HHS has awarded $55.4 million to Verizon for its work to support the health-law marketplaces since its contract began in 2011, including an award for $9.4 million of new website capacity this month, federal contracting records show.
But this spring, the government solicited bids for a new contract to provide the same services, people familiar with the matter said. H-P’s Enterprise Services group was awarded a $38 million contract to provide web hosting services over the summer, federal contracting records show. The contract was for the government’s health-insurance marketplace, said a person familiar with the matter. Terremark was a subcontractor on a bid for the new contract but lost out to H-P, said another person familiar with the matter.
An HHS official said the agency overseeing the marketplace “has begun the necessary activities to transition the data center over to H-P. We are working to ensure a smooth transition between the two contractors.” The federal government had worked with Verizon to make changes to the current system to improve its reliability in early November, the official said.
A Verizon spokesman said the company doesn’t comment on client relationships. An H-P spokesman referred questions to federal officials overseeing the marketplace.
The transition to the new host, H-P, means the health-law marketplace will remain a work in progress as technicians move the website and its digital underpinnings to a new data center, a process that could take months, people familiar with the matter say. The administration had set a deadline to have the website working for the majority of users by the end of November, but work on key parts of the site is expected to continue long after that date.
Consumers can enroll in coverage that begins next year until the end of March. The web-hosting move, coupled with other challenges completing the site, could mean technical work extends through much of that period.
A federal official said in congressional testimony last week that some parts of HealthCare.gov, such as components that send payments from the federal government directly to private insurers to help people afford coverage, haven’t been built yet.
The administration also said it is continuing to expand server capacity to accommodate more users. The goal is to be able to handle about 50,000 users on the site at the same time, but on Nov. 22 the administration said the site was able to maintain good performance with about 25,000 users.
The decision to replace Verizon was made before the rocky launch of the federal health exchange, but one person familiar with the situation said agency officials have been aware of certain problems with the Terremark hosting services since late 2010, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began moving over some of its online systems to Terremark.
Since the site launched on Oct. 1, a number of outages in the Verizon data center have blocked customers from completing the process of enrolling in coverage in all 50 states, including 14 that are running their own marketplaces rather than relying on HealthCare.gov.
On Oct. 29, a storage device in the data center malfunctioned and led to an outage as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified to a congressional committee about the rollout’s troubles. Mrs. Sebelius blamed Verizon for the failures in her testimony, saying, “It is the Verizon server that failed, not HealthCare.gov.”
The website was also down for a 16-hour period on Oct. 27. Other components of the HealthCare.gov website crashed frequently after the marketplace launched.
The Department of Health and Human Services designed the HealthCare.gov website to handle failures within the application, but its design didn’t include a full backup version of the site in a different data center, said people familiar with the matter. HealthCare.gov is still housed within a single data center and doesn’t have a backup, said the people.
Corporations typically create dual versions of high-profile public-facing websites and host them in a different data center, but the government often chooses to not pay the extra money required to operate a backup site, Web experts said.
In September, the government awarded a new $4 million task order to H-P to provide disaster recovery services for the health-insurance exchange, according to federal contracting records. Such services typically include the development of a backup website that can be turned on in case of a natural disaster, power outage or system failure.
Terremark won the initial contract for HealthCare.gov in April of 2011, just as Verizon closed a $1.4 billion deal to buy the company in a move aimed at selling more computing services to business customers.
The data center swaps behind-the-scenes data such as the Internal Revenue Service’s records of income and Social Security Administration identity records as users seek to enroll in coverage through the online marketplaces.
The various technical problems with HealthCare.gov contributed to enrollment figures that have fallen far short of goals as many customers failed to navigate the glitches. Earlier this month, federal officials reported that about 100,000 people had collectively enrolled in the state and federal exchanges as of Nov. 2, far short of the goal of 500,000 sign-ups for the first month.
Technology experts say moving a website over to a new hosting provider will involve developing a plan, hiring engineers, buying the necessary equipment and connectivity, and moving over pieces of the site in phases.
“It is a major exercise to move something like that,” said Frank Gillett, analyst with Forrester Research Depending on the complexity of the site, he said “it is a minimum of weeks and more like months.”
– WALL STREET JOURNAL
In efforts at spicing up the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, the management of ITREALMS Media has partnered with E-waste Producer Responsibility Organization of Nigeria (EPRON) membership organisations for a day-long collection scheme of small electronic waste on Friday, December 15, 2023.
The EPRON members aligning their partnership with 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue are EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited and WEEE Eco-Friendly.
ITREALMS’ day-long collection scheme is part of the commemoration of 2023 international E-Waste Day (IEWD) within the ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue with the theme “You Can Recycle Anything with a plug, battery or cable” at Welcome Centre Hotels, International Airport Road, Lagos.
Revealing this collaboration, the Group Executive Editor, ITREALMS Media, the organisers of the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue, Sir. Remmy Nweke, urged mobile device enthusiasts to come along with their devices that have reached their end-of-life to the venue for proper disposition by professionals who would also be on grounds to address some topical issues.
The collection of small electronic wastes especially mobile phones and like-devices, would be carried out by EPRON member organisation, EL-AS Tech Enterprises Limited as facilitated by ITREALMS Media group as part of this year’s ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue on Friday, December 15, he added.
He disclosed that the exercise would commence at Welcome Centre Hotel by 9am till close of work hours the same day.
Nweke pointed out that the collection of small e-waste items would include mobile phones, pointers mouse, earpieces, rechargeable torches, phone chargers, to name a few.
Further, he said, that this initiative has become time-serving because some people may have missed any other opportunity before now for the year-long campaign, hence this awareness on e-Waste has to be continuous, “ITREALMS came up with this scheme.”
Nweke beckoned on Nigerians, especially mobile phone users, to leverage the opportunity in disposing of their mobile devices they no longer use, of course in exchange for a voucher or gift item.
In her reaction to this year’s day-long small waste collection, EPRON Executive Secretary, Mrs. Ibukun Faluyi, described the initiative as commendable, expressing confidence it would intensify the collection of end-of-life devices for proper disposition.
Mrs. Faluyi, also urged Nigerians to take advantage of this day-long collection of small wastes courtesy of ITREALMS Media.
Recalling for instance that in October 2022, EPRON had partnered SLOT alongside some UN agencies for collection of small e-waste items in Lagos, including the United Nations Information Centres (UNIC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Labour Organisation (ILO), Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA).
This is even as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida and Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, would both lead speakers at the 2023 ITREALMS E-Waste Dialogue slated for this Friday, December 15, in Lagos.
Today, September 12, the tech corporation Apple will introduce the iPhone 15, their newest iPhone model.
According to a Forbes story, this model, which will be introduced at the company’s “Wanderlust” event in Cupertino, California, will be available in four variations: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Here are five things you should know about the new iPhone 15 model.
1. The new model is made of titaniu, not stainless steel as some other Apple smartphone models, Senior research analyst at DIGITIMES, Luke Lin reports.
2. The Pro Max model will feature double the optical zoom on the iPhone 14 as it comes with a newly-introduced ‘periscope lens upgrade, performing 5-6x optical zoom.’
3. The Pro models will carry an A17 bionic chip expected to make it perform faster.
4. The iPhone 15 model will feature a USB-C charging port, the same port featured on some Android phone models.
5. Due to its titanium shell, the new model is anticipated to be more expensive to purchase. The following is the speculated price list, as reported by Forbes:
The iPhone 15 starts at $799, the iPhone 15 Plus at $899, the iPhone 15 Pro at $1,099 ($100 increase), and the iPhone 15 Pro Max at $1,299 ($200 increase).
In an effort to reduce the exorbitant cost of Premium Motor Spirit, better known as petrol, the Infrastructure Bank Plc announced its collaboration with FEMADEC Group on Monday to offer 500 buses powered by autogas (Compressed Natural Gas).
Partners in the agreement claimed that the project was created to provide citizens with dependable, affordable, and environmentally friendly travel options, taking into account the negative effects of the nationwide increase in PMS costs.
Under Decree No. 51 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1992 Constitution, the Infrastructure Bank, originally known as the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria Plc, was founded in 1992 to promote the quick development of infrastructure throughout the nation.
In a statement issued in Abuja on its partnership with FEMADEC, the bank said, “The preliminary offer extended by TIB lays a solid foundation for the expansion of FEMADEC Group’s CNG bus fleet.
“With plans to introduce 500 CNG buses within the next five years, commencing with an initial batch of 50 buses in the forthcoming year, this proposal stands poised to instigate significant change.
“The acceptance of this proposition by FEMADEC Group, notably championed by Fola Akinnola, the Group Chief Executive Officer, is a testament to their zeal and dedication to this alliance.”
The bank described the partnership as a “pivotal endeavour that is primed to redefine Nigeria’s public transportation landscape, offering dependable, cost-effective, and ecologically conscious travel alternatives for citizens, while harmonising with the nation’s broader sustainability ambitions.”
“This partnership represents a remarkable stride towards a more ecologically aware future for Nigeria’s transportation sector, highlighting the shared commitment of both TIB and FEMADEC Group to sustainable advancement and progress.”
It said FEMADEC Group’s strides in operating Compressed Natural Gas buses, including the existing fleet of 20 CNG buses under LAMATA, underscored their unwavering dedication to ecologically sound solutions, a commitment predating the fuel subsidy removal.
“Their leadership within the CNG value chain is undeniable, and the new alliance with TIB underscores their foresight.
“This partnership seamlessly aligns with TIB’s sustainability objectives, echoing their resolute endorsement of the government’s net-zero and climate change agenda.
“The bank’s aspiration to champion Nigeria’s infrastructure progress is evident in its endorsement of pivotal initiatives like this, yielding expansive positive impacts on both the environment and society,” the bank stated.
The bank added that it would continue to make a significant contribution to the country’s growth as a leading financial institution committed to advancing effective and long-lasting infrastructure projects.
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