This paper reports on a rare story of sustainability success of a HMIS implementation in a low and middle income country context of India. The narrative is set in the Indian state of Odisha, where the DHIS2 is being implemented for the state Health Management Information System since 2008. The authors of this paper have been engaged both in research and practice supporting the implementation since the start, and draw upon this rich and longitudinal data source to analyze from the perspective of the state government “the challenges they faced with respect to sustainability, and how have they overcome them”. Three sets of sustainability qualifiers were identified-benefits/continued benefits, institutionalisation/ routinisation and development - which have been key in enabling sustainability. However, going forward, the authors identify the need for additional qualifiers to strengthen the aspect of data use, which till date remains weak as compared to data quality management.