Whether lights in our rooms stay on and the electricity we use is conveniently accessible no longer depends solely on the reliability of stations. The role of the IT infrastructure is equally important, as it runs systems that help to secure the generation and distribution of power and ensure the reliability of the services provided to business and private customers by the largest energy group in Estonia.
The company has over 600,000 customers. We asked Tarmo Tulva, Head of IT Infrastructure of Eesti Energia (Enefit), about laying the foundations of the IT systems for one of the largest companies in Estonia, whether it is better to manage IT infrastructure yourself or to outsource it as a service, and whether customers and employees would notice the relocation of an entire data center.
Many organisations are afraid of owning IT infrastructure. In which instances is it justified, when is it not reasonable, and which path have you chosen?
In my experience, it pays to have your own infrastructure if the company is large. It is definitely reasonable for a group the size of Eesti Energia (Enefit). However, in the past, I have worked in organisations where I as the IT manager had to manage outsourcing everything. If you have the capacity to hire one or two employees for IT and need ten virtual servers, there is no point in doing it yourself and relying on external partners would make sense. This way, you can focus solely on your business. However, the IT unit of Eesti Energia (Enefit) employs more than 300 people. At this scale, it makes sense to manage the infrastructure yourself. The systems, networks, and locations are all complex enough to require a partner to maintain an IT team of a similar size to keep it up and running. You could not just do two hours of work a week for Eesti Energia (Enefit) and use the rest of the time for providing services to others.
What can be gained from managing your IT infrastructure?
A peace of mind that you always have necessary technical expertise in-house. Moreover, partners will invariably claim that they have the capacity and the skills to provide all the required services, but there is no way for us to check what they know and who are providing the services. Know-how within your team means more control, faster decisions, and a quicker response. Naturally, this also entails a responsibility to deal with staff, which would not be the case with a partner. Ultimately, scale matters. For large companies, it makes sense to keep infrastructure in-house.
What kind of strategy has Eesti Energia (Enefit) used for building and managing IT infrastructure over the last decade?
I have been working in the IT sector for 25 years, but I have been employed by Eesti Energia (Enefit) only for the last two years, so I can speak mostly about this period. Our direction is clearly towards having multiple data centers with a similar capacity and enough hardware resources to cover all business needs and disaster recovery capabilities in the data centers. This is what we strive for in our daily work.
To what extent have these targets been achieved to date?
I should probably describe it more like a journey. We can never be fully ready because the world is constantly evolving. Nevertheless, we are in a much stronger position than we were two years ago. There are certainly things that continue to need attention and adaptation.
What is the overall footprint of the IT infrastructure of Eesti Energia (Enefit) today?
In the grand scheme of things, we keep the production-related information systems at the production site (information about power production is collected and processed at the plants for efficiency purposes – ed.) and the rest of the systems centrally in data centers.
What are your strategic objectives for the near future?
As the unit responsible for the IT infrastructure of Eesti Energia Group (Enefit), which also includes Enefit Power, Enefit Green, Elektrilevi, Enefit Connect, Enefit Solutions, and subsidiaries in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Finland in addition to Eesti Energia (Enefit), we must provide a stable, high-quality, and reliable infrastructure for our business services. If we can do this and are prepared to deal with the unexpected, then our job is done. Naturally, technology changes over time with new devices, new solutions, and new platforms coming out, constantly changing the game. Still, our goals remain the same.
How will the consumer, the so-called man on the street, benefit from these developments?
Consumers have certainly benefited from improved reliability. If I look at it from my end, or from the point of view of infrastructure – the less we are noticed, the better our service.
So the golden rule of IT is – if no one talks about you, then you have done a good job?
This is not always the case for business services. If you develop a new service or software, your customers will notice. In the case of infrastructure and data centers, however, as long as everything is up and running, developers can get on with their work, and products and services are available, we tend to be invisible to the outsider. And perhaps it is a good thing that we are.
Speaking of standing out – Eesti Energia (Enefit) has recently garnered attention with its good financial results. Does this create opportunities for IT development and to what extent?
For as long as I have worked here, I have always been able to do what was needed. But that does not mean you can splurge. We must always keep efficiency in mind, whether we are developing infrastructure, business services, or applications.
Today, many organisations have chosen the hybrid cloud route. How have you found the balance between storing data on your own premises, in data centers, and in a public cloud?
Essentially, we are using all of these options. We do not dictate to a developer of an application or service within the group where to host their things. We will not force them onto our premises or into our cloud. It is the developer’s choice. There are pros and cons for both options, and cost certainly plays a big role.
I remember that a few years ago, there was a popular tendency in the wider tech world to move everything to the cloud. For a company the size of ours, it does not make sense, financially or otherwise. Data centers are an indispensable part of the infrastructure. In addition, there is a whole range of applications that must be on site, for example by power production units in power plants, that cannot be moved elsewhere. In other words, you have to have your own infrastructure.
