Posted on August 10th, 2011
Following the example of the US government, the Canadian Government also hopes to strengthen data centers, email systems and IT, inside the government agencies, as stated in a report, released on Thursday. Even though, the idea is similar, save money and reinforce safety of important data, the figures are quite different. The Canadian government will combine more than 300 of its centers to just 20. The US government, on the other hand, hopes to lower the number of its centers to 800 by 2015 and has closed down 200 already. Before the plan was introduced, the US government was running more than 2,100 data centers.
By the end of this year, the US government hopes to close down 195 data centers. Retiring federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, has made a deadline of October 7th, for all the government institutions, to have the plans mentioned on their websites. The Canadian government uses more than 100 email systems and 3,000 network services within the Federal Public service.
“Canadians work hard for their money and expect our government to manage taxpayers dollars responsibly,” minister of public works and government services and minister for status of women, Rona Ambrose, said in a statement. “Shared Services Canada will have a mandate to streamline IT, save money, and end waste and duplication.”
The consolidation plan consists of transferring the government to just one email system and updating networks of all departments. The IT systems will be moved from 44 of the more “IT intensive” departments and institutions to a new agency, known as Shared Services Canada, in under two months, as stated in the press release.
At present, all the government agencies have developed their own IT infrastructure, causing disintegration, replication and ineffectiveness. The email systems, working between departments, are not completely functional. As the press release states, around 80 percent of the departments make use of Microsoft Outlook, 15 use Lotus Notes and 5 use Novell Groupwide for their email systems.
Some of the centers are not being used to their full potential and every building has different and reliable security measures. Furthermore, the older centers do not meet the proper energy needs. In 1998, the Government of Ontario released its IT alteration plan. As mentioned in the report, once fully functional, it will save $100 million per year, signifying 10 percent of the total IT finance and around 25 percent of the IT infrastructure finance.
Safety issues are high for governments, especially after a recent research made by McAfee, found that more than 70 computer networks of public and private sector corporations were compromised by hackers. According to the report, Canada had four businesses, including two federal institutions attacked by “Operation Shady RAT”.