Agenda, decisions and minutes

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2017.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 20 June 2017 were taken as read and signed by the Chair as correct.

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were made.

To consider the report of the Strata IT Director.

The Strata IT Director updated Members on the IT issues that caused the failure of the Global Desktop environment on the 13 and 15 September 2017. The root cause had been identified as a problem with the SAN (Storage Area Network) as three automated processes were happening simultaneously within the SAN (data progression, restriping and rebuilding of a disk) and the combination of these three processes dramatically impacted the overall performance of the Global Desktop environment.

The Strata IT Director advised that mitigation measures were being discussed and potentially being put into place including; engagement with Dell to discuss how the combination of processes impacted the SAN performance; SAN management training for Strata staff; ongoing SAN capacity management; Dell optimisation service; alerting mechanisms and manufacturer/reseller support contracts.

Presentation attached to minutes.

The Strata IT Director clarified that, during the SAN performance degradation issue, data was safe. It was also stated that the Secondary Data Centre at the Oakwood location enabled a maximum of 250 users across the three Councils to access the Global Desktop to connect to a number of core applications. Work was currently underway with the Business Continuity Managers across the three authorities to ascertain what additional ‘core’ applications were required in the event of a major incident. The Councils would have to decide how many users and what core applications it would require at the Secondary Data Centre locations as there were costs implications. Strata were investigating the additional costs of the back-up data Centre and also to potentially move the infrastructure into the ‘Cloud’.

Members acknowledged the failure did provide an opportunity for the Councils to test their Disaster Recovery Plans although they recognised the need for a joined up approach when communicating information that affected all three Council to the wider public.

The Leader of Exeter City Council raised concerns with regards to the communication to the politicians that was received from Strata at the time of failure.

The Strata IT Director commented that a lot had been learnt during the period of performance degradation and Strata would work with its suppliers to mitigate the risk moving forward. Strata would also review communication processes to be utilised in the event of a major incident. The Strata IT Director also stated that two of the three authorities had provided contact details for use by the Strata Service Desk in the event of a major incident occurring, and these details had been used to contact the named individuals.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 6 September 2017 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To consider the report of the Director Responsible for Finance.

The Director responsible for Finance reported that Strata had been given a total of £6,104,000 to run the IT Services in 2017/18 along with funding for various capital projects. The 2017/18 Business Plan had revised the savings profile set out in the original Business Cases over the initial ten year period of the Company.

The Director responsible for Finance clarified the position with regards to the projected savings and that part of the increase was due to additional income from Government funding. In order to monitor the financial position there would be regular meetings with the Strata IT Director and the finance team and quarterly updates to the Board.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 6 September 2017 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To consider the report of the Alternate Director with lead responsibility for Human Resources.

The report of the Alternate Director with Lead Responsibility for Human Resources was submitted setting out key people information for 2016/17. The report covered headcount, turnover, absence, recruitment, apprentices and age profiles. Strata had recruited three apprentices for each of the three councils.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 6 September 2017 and its comments were noted.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.