The operation of the information system for the electronic census of Lithuanian population that ended on Wednesday was ensured by cloud computing solutions. Virtual resource services for the Department of Statistics (Statistics Lithuania), the organizer of the census, were provided by Baltic Data Center, a leader in the management of data centers and information systems in the Baltic States.

That was one of the first cases in Lithuania, when public services were provided to residents by using the possibilities offered by state-of-the-art technologies – virtual resources. Their distinctiveness – the potential to unlimitedly expand the technological capacities necessary for the information system in case, for example, of a sudden increase in the number of people using it simultaneously.

According to Saulius Markūnas, Director of Baltic Data Center, a company belonging to TEO Group, the activity of people participating in the census was significantly higher than expected. The system was simultaneously used by up to 20 thousand people, and there was as much of the information collected in the database during the census as could be saved in more than 2 thousand CDs.

“The virtual resources solution allowed to expeditiously allocate additional capacities, so the electronic census was implemented successfully, albeit with temporary slowdowns in the system’s performance”, – S. Markūnas said.

The value of the virtual resources and telecommunication services contract, signed between the Department of Statistics and Baltic Data Center, amounts to LTL 100 thousand. The fiber-optic connection between the Department of Statistics and the data center of Baltic Data Center that was necessary for the smooth operation of the information system had been installed by the telecommunications company TEO LT, AB.

“Lithuanian business enterprises have already realized the advantages of cloud computing services.  Recently, these investment-saving and efficiency-enhancing solutions have been started to be implemented in the public sector as well. Such services especially pay off in short-term, but resource-intensive projects. They provide the flexibility to change required technological capacities and to pay only for actually used resources”, – S. Markūnas said.

The census was organized electronically for the first time in Lithuania. From 1 to 16 March, residents had the opportunity to answer the census questions over the Internet at a time convenient for them. Thus it was easier to participate in the census, because part of information in the questionnaire was already filled in – it had been pre-collected from different state registers and other institutions.

About Baltic Data Center
Baltic Data Center, a company belonging to TEO LT, AB Group of companies, is a leader in the management of data centers and information systems in the Baltic States. The company owns seven modern data centers, which meet the highest requirements of security, and is the first company in its sector in the Baltic States the activities of which have been evaluated with the international certificate of compliance with the ISO 27001 standard.
 
Baltic Data Center services are trusted and used by the largest Lithuanian and foreign companies. The main focus of the continuously-growing company is on ensuring customers’ business continuity, security, cost savings and competitiveness.