The IRIS production system was originally housed in a commercial building. To enhance customer services and system reliability and to reduce operating cost, the IRIS data centre was relocated to the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer’s data centre over the Christmas holidays in December 2007. The new data centre provides a permanent accommodation and is better equipped with support facilities including a backup power generator.

Stakeholders were informed of the relocation at Customer Liaison Group meetings. Land Registry Circular Memorandum, press releases and notices to subscribers were issued beforehand. In addition, we put up advertisements in newspapers and notices on the IRIS as well as the Land Registry websites to draw the public’s attention to the special service arrangements. Meetings were also held with stakeholders, e.g. the Estate Agents Authority together with the Estate Agents Associations, to brief them on the relocation arrangements.

During the relocation, the IRIS main system was shut down for five days from 22 to 26 December 2007. To minimize inconvenience to customers, the IRIS backup system was activated to provide search services of land registers from noon of 23 December to 26 December. Regrettably, some instability in the search services over the Internet was experienced immediately after the removal but performance was quickly restored to previous level when daily operation resumed on 28 December. We are grateful to all customers for their forbearance and patience during the period of disruption while we sorted out the problem.