Government cloud strategy
The Government’s Chief Information Officer, Bill McCluggage, talks to Owen McQuade about the government cloud strategy and how a ‘cloud first’ approach should be taken for any new technology investments.
The Government’s cloud strategy was published last summer and Bill McCluggage sees the approach taken in the strategy as ‘community cloud’, very similar that that taken by the Canadian Government with a mix of public, private and community. The Chief Information Officer sees the terminology as being problematic as “cloud is a technical term thought up by technocrats.”
“What is it? It is the capability to consume technology/IT as a service.” He uses the simple example of iTunes which he says is consumed as a service “and the technology disappears in behind it.”
McCluggage adds: “It doesn’t mean that the technology is not important – it is very important – but it sits behind the service. It is about a change in the consumption model. IT is about taking services and not buying capital equipment and hardware. It is about moving away from large monolithic projects to componentised projects where the citizen-facing service has behind it a series of components which can be swapped in and out over a two- to three-year period, rather than building one big thing which is difficult to change.
“Cloud computing,” he explains, “is about a new marketplace for services. We will have a Government cloud catalogue – like an Argos catalogue – which is a buying mechanism for consuming services. If you decide to redo the kitchen in your home, you buy the appliances to suit your needs and you can swap them in and out. The public service is not homogenous. It is highly heterogeneous and yet we try to force monolithic programmes into that environment.”
The UK’s perspective is governed by a “technocratic view” of cloud computing, with infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service “and on top of that they put their security connectivity model.” Trying to connect a buyer with a supplier: “When looking at the cloud catalogue we want things as a service, we don’t want them in a technical language. For example, if you are a businessperson and you want to implement CCTV you want video storage as a service. Or they don’t want Oracle Financials as a service, they want payroll or financial management.”
McCluggage and his team spent two weeks brainstorming on a whiteboard in his office on the best approach to build out the Government Cloud strategy. The biggest issue is around data sensitivity and they devised a grid for the different data needs for cloud users.
Tier 1: On premises, on network managed securely across the network. High security for sensitive personal data. Private community cloud.
Tier 2: Off premises but on network in a secure data centre from a major supplier via a secure connection. The data are still secure but is not highly sensitive.
Both tier 1 and tier 2 are community cloud and can be multi-tenanted but are government only.
Tier 3: Off network, off premises and managed securely over a VLAN (virtual local area network). At present there is only one VLAN for government services supplied by Amazon via eircom. The service is still secure and within Ireland or the EU. Examples include animal databases and video from surveillance of government buildings.
Tier 4A: Off network, off premises and not via a secure VLAN but connected via a pier point in Dublin.
Tier 4B: “Raw internet.” This is “where you put websites and open data, things that need to be in the cheapest possible place.”
McCluggage sees the government cloud service working, for example, with a user defining a need such as video storage. The most suitable layer is chosen and the data residency is defined and a service is then chosen from the catalogue list of services. This modular approach has the big advantage of offering ready made services: “You might not get 100 per cent of what you need but you will get it within a week.”
He expects smaller services to be offered initially with suppliers “dipping their toe in the water” before developing a wider and deeper range of services. The catalogue approach is SME-friendly.
Risk
As regards risk, McCluggage says that with all projects there is always some risk but that should be framed against the past experience of managing large complex projects that have not always gone to plan. He sees the catalogue approach as minimising risk “with smaller modules with smaller risks.” There is also “the advantage of being able to swap out services after two to three years.”
He adds: “This approach also allows the public sector to try new services, which will in turn foster innovation, paying per unit and will having to invest in buying hardware.”
In late 2013, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) engaged with suppliers on the possible content of the government cloud catalogue. 180 suppliers attended an event in Croke Park at which the Office of the Chief Information Officer outlined its approach to government cloud. They asked suppliers to suggest possible services for the cloud catalogue. The response detailed over 1,000 possible services.
Allowing for any duplication of services, these were rationalised down to 140 potential services. DPER then held an event at the Dublin Digital Hub for 120 demand side clients from across the public service, which was “a very challenging engagement, particularly around data sensitivity.”
Despite some negativity, McCluggage says that the government cloud catalogue will offer users a choice of services rather than mandating which service should be used. He adds that users should be incentivised to use the catalogue in terms of financial approval: “My expectation is that it will be used by smaller organisations quickly to fix their cost model and to test if this will give them financial value. Once established, I would see it ripple out across the public service. We are now at the stage of designing the user interface, the store front for the cloud catalogue.”
McCluggage sees the delivery of a government cloud strategy as being a “learning journey” and he has been working to change the mindset of many of the large suppliers not to see the strategy as a threat but more as a tool for innovation.
