Oklahoma Future-Proofs Vital Citizen Services Running on IBM Power
Allyship Snapshot
Use Cases
Stabilizing, modernizing and securing state applications.
Solutions
- Power-as-a-Service
Partner
IBM
Outcomes Achieved
The Challenge
Outdated IBM Power Environments put Critical Services at Risk
The State of Oklahoma’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) serves as the consolidated IT department for the state. Located in Oklahoma City, OMES supports key agencies and is dedicated to enhancing the citizen experience, while improving operational efficiency.
The Department of Human Services (DHS) runs critical financial systems for all of Human Services, including the services that support child support services, vulnerable adults programs, and personal care programs.
The Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) runs all the critical processes to support Juvenile Affairs in the State, including prevention, education and treatment services for at-risk youth throughout Oklahoma.
And the Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) is responsible for regulating the insurance industry in Oklahoma.
All of these agencies rely on IBM Power running IBM i to deliver these critical services. These environments, while reliable, were no longer supported and lacked the flexibility needed for robust disaster recovery.
Resource constraints and a growing talent gap meant that the agencies could not perform necessary changes to the environment to supported levels. Should an incident occur, the departments faced their services being down and citizens losing vital access and support for up to 72 hours, with limited recovery plans in place.
With several veteran IBM i experts nearing retirement, OMES saw a timely opportunity to upgrade and enhance these critical systems.
The Journey
A Long-Term Partnership Delivers Long-Term Resilience
As an Ensono Mainframe-as-a-Service client since 2018, OMES recognized the value of working with us to proactively modernize its IBM i infrastructure to ensure long-term resilience, continuity, and scalability.
Ensono partnered closely with the State to assess the potential impact of system failure across its agencies, ensuring every risk and dependency was clearly understood. From there, we designed a forward-looking architecture tailored to each agency’s future needs. We built a migration plan to move workloads over to Ensono’s Power-as-a-Service—minimizing disruption throughout the transition.
To strengthen operational resilience, we enhanced the State’s support model with 24/7 coverage and integrated disaster recovery services.
Ensono also conducted an in-depth assessment of the Department of Human Services’ application environment, uncovering new opportunities to elevate service delivery and better support citizens across Oklahoma.
The Outcomes
Now These Critical Services are Resilient and Future-Ready
This engagement enhanced the State’s ability to maintain critical services and recover quickly from potential disruptions, while positioning it for future modernization initiatives. Together, we:
- Reduced the risk of failures and stabilized the systems trusted by the citizens who access services provided by the Department of Human Services, the Insurance Department, and the Office of Juvenile Affairs.
- Minimized downtime & enhanced recovery: The DHS, which previously could experience up to 72 hours of downtime during incidents, now benefits from a robust recovery plan. OJA, which lacked any recovery plan, now has a secure recovery environment, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery.
- Enhanced the long-term sustainability and support of IBM Power infrastructure.
This move not only modernized their environment but also positioned the State for future technological advancements.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How did Oklahoma modernize its IBM Power infrastructure for state agencies?
Oklahoma’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) partnered with Ensono to migrate three critical state agencies—the Department of Human Services, Office of Juvenile Affairs, and Oklahoma Insurance Department—to Ensono’s Power-as-a-Service solution. This modernization stabilized aging IBM i systems, implemented 24/7 support coverage, and integrated robust disaster recovery services to ensure long-term resilience and scalability.
What disaster recovery improvements did Oklahoma achieve through IBM Power modernization?
Before modernization, Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services faced up to 72 hours of potential downtime during incidents, and the Office of Juvenile Affairs had no recovery plan at all. Through the Ensono partnership, both agencies now benefit from robust recovery environments, minimizing downtime and ensuring uninterrupted service delivery to Oklahoma citizens who depend on child support, vulnerable adult programs, and youth services.
Why did Oklahoma choose Power-as-a-Service for its state government IT systems?
Oklahoma faced resource constraints, a growing IBM i talent gap with veteran experts nearing retirement, and outdated systems that were no longer supported. As an existing Ensono Mainframe-as-a-Service client since 2018, OMES chose Power-as-a-Service to address these challenges while positioning the state for future technological advancements—all with minimal disruption during migration.
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