Umoja Upgrades Infrastructure for Better Features and Performance

Umoja offers a powerful platform for the Organization to manage all its resources with globally harmonized business processes.

In order to deliver a broad spectrum of functionalities and services, Umoja relies on a complex core infrastructure.

176 underlying instances of software, from SAP and other providers, make up the Umoja solution, running on 276 servers located in Valencia and Brindisi.

Umoja is accessed globally, anytime, from both inside and outside the UN network.

It requires numerous security applications and protocols running in the background to protect our data from threats or breaches. All these software instances, servers and protocols have to continuously and unobtrusively “talk to one another” to make Umoja happen.

Umoja Extension 2 has dramatically increased the complexity of Umoja’s infrastructure which had not been upgraded since its first rollout though the user-base has grown significantly.

A major upgrade to the core infrastructure was necessary and was completed in September this year.

A massive renewal of Umoja’s core infrastructure was a challenging project which took two years from design to implementation. It involved 14 different teams and support from numerous vendors and took 554 hours of work to complete.

During the final, demanding phase of the project, nearly 240 hours of system downtime were required, over 5 weekends of intensive work.

Umoja’s upgraded infrastructure improves the security and performance of the Umoja solution and reduces the risk of several technical issues. It enables real-time reporting, better visualization of information through dashboards, and progressive access on mobile devices.

“An infrastructure renewal of this magnitude requires significant planning and extraordinary collaboration. I would like to thank and congratulate all the colleagues who contributed to this great achievement,” Chandru Ramanathan, Umoja Project Director, noted.

Umoja Extension 2 deployments will continue to enrich the functionalities of the solution, including sophisticated tools for strategic planning, budgeting and performance management, enabling the Secretariat to deliver on the Secretary-General’s vision of reform.

To learn more, visit http://umoja.un.org.