Governments in Canada have identified at least 10 priorities for a 2007 information and technology to-do list that aims to push operational efficiency, consolidate infrastructure resources, and cut maintenance costs.
At the federal level, the move to shared services is focused on building enterprise architecture, where technologies like service-oriented architecture (SOA) and virtualization come into play. Three other hot areas of interest are identity authentication and authorization, voice over IP (VoIP) and converged networks, and (of course) information management.
Service-oriented architecture
Many of the largest departments in particular find themselves in the position of managing a significant number of legacy systems, with no coherent corporate architecture, says Michael Turner, principal consultant for e-Government Strategies.
Although the general trend is towards SOA, there is no specific prohibition against other architectural approaches, says Turner.
At the CIO Branch of Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), for example, there has been agreement on the overall architecture for the common desktop services that Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) will be proposing as one of the first of a new family of shared services.
"TBS has issued no specific technical direction to departments beyond their already stated architectural principles, other than favouring SOA as a general approach," says Turner.
The shape of the first of these new shared services can be seen in the recently announced partnership between the Department of National Defence (DND) and the IT Services Branch of PWGSC, he adds.
Paul Gallant of the DND's Information Management Service Transformation office clarifies the partnership as follows: "The objective of the Memorandum of Understanding between DND and PWGSC is to pursue mutual interests in the development and implementation of selected IT Shared Services.
"DND/CF (Canadian Forces) and PWGSC will jointly explore selected IT services that would potentially lead to Enterprise IT solutions, responsive to the needs of DND/CF. These shared services would potentially be offered government-wide by PWGSC."
Network convergence
According to Turner, Service Canada is also partnering with PWGSC for a new converged enterprise IP network service that will likely be MPLS-based (multi-protocol label switching).
Currently a request for information is out on the street, with comments required early next month before an RFP is issued, says Turner. The goal is an omnibus contract that can then also be used to replace existing WAN (wide-area network) services for other departments, as and when required.
"If more widely adopted than just for Service Canada, the new IP network could also become the next-generation connection between departments and between government and the outside public Internet," says Turner.
The new MPLS-IP network may also be used to replace the network portion of the federal government's Secure Channel service, which has already been in place several years.
The RFP is expected to include provisions for modernization of call centre systems in Service Canada and potentially other departments.
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