IRS enlists help to migrate

The Internal Revenue Service has awarded a $3.7 million contract to Aelita Software Corp. to help the tax agency migrate to Microsoft Corp. Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000.

The contract also calls for Aelita to provide increased security auditing of the agency's servers and directories and perform faster recovery of failed systems and corrupted directories.

The IRS network includes 4,000 servers and supports up to 130,000 users.

The agency selected Aelita after an evaluation to ensure that the products chosen were capable of the performance and scalability required by the agency and that the IRS could manage the changes without impacting the users' ability to access network resources.

"This is particularly meaningful because of the size and complexity of the agency's network, the range of solutions that will be deployed and the agency's reputation as a technically sophisticated and forward-thinking government organization," said Ratmir Timashev, president and chief executive officer of Aelita Software, said in an announcement Aug 27.

George Sidoris, director of the company's federal government sales, said Aelita was the only company that could provide "true zero impact" to users when installing its products. Unlike most products, he said the components could be installed without taking down the system.