Unveiling the core operations of MITA’s Infrastructure Services Department

The Infrastructure Services Department (ISD) is currently composed of 41 IT professionals, with 39 split between the two main teams - the Network Engineering Service Team and the Platform Engineering Services Team.

One person is focused on coordinating MITA’s efforts on client-driven infrastructure projects, and another is dedicated solely to the Ministry for Health (MFH), as technical infrastructure lead, coordinating all related efforts between MITA and MFH.

The entire workforce is highly skilled in their various roles, and they all keep upskilling through the continuous training that MITA provides. The average age is early 30s and all are highly motivated, enthusiastic, and passionate about IT and their role within MITA and ISD. This excitement is for good reason, as for example, these professionals have the opportunity to build, manage and maintain the largest private wide area network in Malta – this exposure is not possible anywhere else in Malta!

Similarly, the Platform Engineering Services Team is responsible for building, managing, and maintaining the largest private physical and virtual (including cloud) hosting environment on the island! These are just a couple of examples of the critical yet, rewarding work carried out within ISD.

The work mentioned above, and other similar tasks of equal scale, are carried out for MITA’s sole client, the Government of Malta, including the numerous and various government entities.

The government has long understood the potential of IT and its benefits, both to its own administration as well as offering its services to the Maltese citizens.  As a result, there was an investment in maintaining what was already implemented, and equally important, in innovating and introducing new technology ensures that all IT professionals in MITA and ISD learn and implement the latest technologies within the Networking and Platform arenas – something which may not always be the case in many other organisations.

Although ISD is composed of two distinct teams, they constantly work together to ensure Government’s IT systems are kept up and running at all times and new projects are implemented in a timely and smooth manner.  Nowadays, IT has little internal boundaries and the ideal IT professional must be an expert in their chosen field, be it networking, platforms, software development, service management, etc.

Furthermore, a broad and good understanding of other related IT fields, is imperative to understand the whole concept of the project at hand. Most projects are run in a collaborative fashion by creating a ‘virtual’ team to work on the project from start to finish, roping in the necessary resources along the way, as necessary.

MITA understood this a while back and organised itself to facilitate this through the introduction of the Solution and Enterprise Architect roles and more importantly by encouraging team members to go for such roles once the necessary cross-exposure and skills have been achieved.

The department supports government in providing IT services for national events like the Games for the Small States of Europe

Moreover, the Department supports the Government of Malta in providing network services for national events such as the recent small nations games, Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE), and the Public Service Expo 2023.

Apart from the all-important IT skills, which can be learned and enhanced along the way with the training and exposure provided, the right aptitude and attitude are also of equal importance and the ISD team members all have these attributes and manifest them in their own individual ways, which makes for a great work environment, conducive to productivity, and great comradery across the department and MITA in general.