Shared Data Manager for Next-Generation IT for Municipal Governments

For the next generation IT services, we have created a cloud-based platform for delivering web-based IT services to municipal governments called the Government Data Portal (GDP). This portal, which draws up on the lessons learned from an extensive study of municipal governments and their operations, offer several features that are especially designed to address the needs of the target market. The GDP allows municipal governments to subscribe to a set of applications in a shared service computing environment. The portal employs a novel approach referred to as the Shared Data Manager (SDM) that facilitates sharing of data among GDP applications in a loosely coupled manner. The main function of the SDM is to allow the users to coordinate access to the shared data. Specifically, it controls the manner in which member applications of a subscription set access the subscriber's central shared data. The GDP and the SDM were piloted with several municipal governments, validating the technology and the service operational model. This paper discusses the technical details of the design and implementation of the GDP and the SDM. Additionally, it presents results from an empirical study and discusses the implications. While this paper focuses on the IT services for municipal governments, the problems that are not unique to municipal governments, and the proposed solution is not limited to the area. Indeed, our solution can be effective and useful in the enterprise as well.