Strategic aspects of EDP utilization

EDP competence and expert knowledge

Municipal Department 14 - Automated Data Processing, Information and Communications Technology (MA 14) is not only familiar with all processes and relations within the City Administration, it has also acquired extensive knowledge of and expertise with information and communications technology's latest developments. Structural or legally relevant changes required at short notice are dealt with instantly, a fact which helps us maintain legal security and conformity with the law at all times.

MA 14 abides by the principle "develop only what the market cannot offer". Strategies for software development and hardware procurement take into account maximum utilization periods. Both existing and required resources are considered to make EDP structures, such as data network, user support and communications facilities, available for the entire City Administration. This alone enables us to develop and implement comprehensive information and communications technology solutions for the whole administration.

Independence from manufacturers

We award contracts to several manufacturers to ensure independence from any one hardware or software line or from any one provider in particular. Because of this, we are always able to opt for the most favourable technical and economical solutions too. The city now also relies on open source technologies.

Open Source Software (OSS) was first introduced in 1989 and has been highly successful since, with server operating systems FreeBSD (since 1994) and Linux (since 2000) now firmly installed. Currently approximately 400 OSS servers are within the competence of MA 14. Main fields of application include print and file servers, e-government solutions, Vienna's internet and Intranet performances, mailing and the firewall.

Parallel to current utilization on the server sector the study Open Source Software on the PC-workstations of Vienna's City Administration was performed to assess all software products used by individual PCs and to identify their migration potential.