The shutdown, which began Monday, has forced the Office of Information Technology to cut its staff from 930 to just 80 employees. Those employees still on the job have been working to keep essential IT services operating, including the state's data centers and its network and Internet services. Those at work also include a limited number of application developers.
"Unfortunately, at a time like this, IT really doesn't shut down, Ebeid said. "If anything, IT really steps up quite a bit. This has been an excellent lesson statewide on how IT actually proved to be sort of the umbilical cord for government operations."
The crisis arose from a budget impasse between New Jersey lawmakers and Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat who appeared to be close to an agreement late Thursday that could end the state government shutdown.
Ebeid said his team relied on contingency plans that envisioned a disruption in services, "and that's pretty much what we are really facing." It is not unlike planning for absenteeism prompted by a bird flu, he said.
Ebeid said his biggest concern has been keeping the state's wide-area network running as well as ensuring the continuity of e-mail and Internet services.