Business Continuity with Zeytinburnu Municipality

Zeytinburnu Municipality's Uninterrupted Service Assurance: Modern Business Continuity Framework Established with Information Systems

Modern Municipality and Technological Transformation

In a digitalizing world, the fundamental promise of modern municipal governance is to provide uninterrupted and reliable service to citizens. Zeytinburnu Municipality's transition to its new and modern " Smart Building " in 2013 was a milestone that embodied this promise and advanced the concept of public service into the future. This transition was not merely a physical move, but also a fundamental investment that secured public trust against the risks posed by increasingly digital services. In this new era, where services are increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure, even the slightest disruption has the potential to paralyze public services. At this critical juncture, Bilgi Birikim Sistemleri stepped in as the project's key technology architect, with the mission of transforming technological resilience from a vision into reality.

This success story demonstrates how Zeytinburnu Municipality, by combining its commitment to public service with the engineering expertise of Bilgi Birikim Sistemleri , transformed technological business continuity into an unshakeable foundation of public trust. The technological challenges underlying the project were overcome through strategic solutions developed to address them.

Challenges and Strategic Goals

Any disruption to a public institution's IT infrastructure can lead to irreparable disruptions to all services that touch citizens' lives, from tax payments to license applications. Aware of this critical responsibility, for the Zeytinburnu Municipality, business continuity was more than a technical requirement; it was an essential strategic objective. The advanced technology and increasing digitalization brought about by the new "Smart Building" made this goal more critical than ever. At the outset of the project, the municipality's key challenges and strategic objectives were as follows:

The Need for High Availability: The advanced IT infrastructure of the new, modern building made 24/7 uninterrupted access to data storage systems a necessity. All critical systems, from citizen data to municipal operations, needed to be operational at all times.
Capacity and Performance Requirements: Continuously increasing data volume and intensive processing loads posed the risk of future inadequacy for existing systems. Therefore, a high-capacity, high-performance infrastructure was required to meet current needs while supporting future growth.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: The strategic foundation of the project was the request from Zeytinburnu Municipality IT Manager Yusuf KIRDEMİR and his team: not just a backup system, but a geographically redundant, active-active structure that would ensure services continued without a single second of interruption in the event of a disaster. Manual transition processes, which resulted in service interruptions in traditional active-passive models, were unacceptable for public service accountability. This request was an uncompromising strategic imperative aimed at maintaining citizen satisfaction and operational integrity.

To respond to these strategic objectives, Bilgi Birikim Sistemleri designed an innovative solution architecture based on geographic redundancy and automation.

BBS's Strategic Solution: Dual-Center Assurance

Success in complex IT projects depends not only on selecting the right technology, but also on working with an expert partner who deeply understands the client's vision and implements it with flawless architecture. Bilgi Birikim Sistemleri analyzed the Zeytinburnu Municipality's objectives and built a geographically redundant, autonomous, and self-healing digital fortress.

The architecture and core components of the presented solution were implemented in the following steps:

Collaboration and Analysis: In the first phase of the project, Information Systems experts held comprehensive meetings with Yusuf KIRDEMİR and his team to identify potential risks and bottlenecks in the existing infrastructure. These analyses resulted in the clarification of the project's business continuity and performance objectives.
Dual-Location Architecture: To provide the backbone of business continuity, the data center was established in two physically independent locations: the new City Hall (Central Office) and the old address at the Wedding Hall . This geographically redundant digital fortress structure completely prevented disasters such as fire, flood, or power outages at one location from impacting the other.
Technological Backbone: At the heart of each system room, a high-performance and reliable HPE 3PAR Storage storage unit was installed. These units ensured data integrity by synchronizing data in real-time across both locations.
Automated Deployment Mechanism: The solution's intelligence and nervous system are built around the Cluster Quorum disk space established between two locations. This structure acts as a neutral overseer, monitoring the health of both locations second by second. When a catastrophic failure is detected in one location, digital intelligence, managed by HPE 3PAR's peer persistence software , takes over. This intelligence instantly and automatically transfers all operations to the healthy location, eliminating the need for any manual intervention, ensuring services are never interrupted.

This strategic architecture has provided Zeytinburnu Municipality not only with a technological infrastructure but also with the assurance to continue serving its citizens under all circumstances.

Project Result: Tested and Proven Success

The true value of an IT infrastructure project lies not in its theoretical design, but in its proven reliability under the most challenging scenarios. The business continuity infrastructure built by Bilgi Birikim Sistemleri has been subjected to rigorous testing simulating real-world conditions, demonstrating its success concretely.

The results of the project and the values it brought to the municipality can be summarized as follows:

Successful Testing Processes: Following project completion, comprehensive system and disaster scenario testing was conducted. These tests simulated real-world disaster scenarios, such as a complete power outage in the central building's power room, and confirmed that the system seamlessly transitioned to the Wedding Palace location within seconds, without any data loss.
Trouble-Free Delivery: After all tests were successfully completed, the system was delivered to Zeytinburnu Municipality without any problems, fully functional and with all its targeted capabilities.
Assurance Achieved: Thanks to this project, Zeytinburnu Municipality has gained the technological assurance to continue its services even in the event of a disaster. This assurance means that online tax payments, permit applications, and internal municipal communications can continue without a single interruption during power outages at the headquarters. This protects both municipal revenue streams and public confidence.

With this project, Zeytinburnu Municipality has transformed business continuity from a technical goal into a fundamental pillar of its public service promise.

Project Imprint

The key components of the project are summarized in the table below.

*Element*	*Explanation*
Customer	Zeytinburnu Municipality
Solution Partner	Information Systems
Project Name	Business Continuity Project
Sector	Public / Municipality
Solution Area	Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery
Technologies Used	HPE 3PAR Storage, HPE Server Products, HPE SAN Switch Products, HPE Network Products, VMWare License, Veeam License