Government Technology Annual Review

www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

REVIEW

CYBER SECURITY

PSN

G-CLOUD UPDATE

PSN SUMMIT 2012

Rethinking public service delivery

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IN THE NEWS: Data breaches soar | Cyber security centres planned | IT skills update

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Contents 07 PSN The creation of a single network infrastructure for all public sector bodies promises to be a long but important journey. It has a big contribution to make in meeting the age of austerity head-on.

Steve Mallinson, conference director at Public Sector Connect discusses the Public Services Network Summit 2012 which takes place on September 12. Plus a look at the recently formed industry association for PSN suppliers, PSNGB, and how it is working with the Cabinet Office to bring PSN to life.

12 G-CLOUD - PIE IN THE SKY? Launched in February this year, G-Cloud hopes to change the way local and central government buys IT, and encourages SMEs to get involved. With sales totalling over £1m since it’s launch, GT looks at the progress it has made so far.

14 CYBER SECURITY KNOW YOUR ENEMY Cyberthreats have come a long way in the last few years. Professor John Walker, London Chapter ISACA Security Advisory Group, believes the days of external simplex threats have now given way to multi-faceted attack vectors, and looks at what the government can do to defend itself.

16 SUPPLIER PROFILES Consillium, Siemens, Cassadian, Abtech

20 IT EVENTS Up and coming IT events of interest to public sector professionals

PROCUREMENT

First supplier achieves Pan Government Accrediation on G-Cloud In what is a major step forward for the G-Cloud programme, the first supplier has been awarded Pan Government Accreditation (PGA) to supply services via the Cloudstore.

The accredition scheme is intended to remove the current processes which public bodies have to go through to check the standards of potential Cloud services suppliers.The scheme will provide confidence that Cloud services have been assessed by information assurance body CESG and approved to operate to a required level.

Nine services from SCC are the first IL2 and IL3 services to achieve PGA for CloudStore.

SCC’s Secure Multi-Tenanted Cloud service (SMTC) is part of what the company calls a broader strategy to nurtute “an effective multi-tenanted environment built around concepts such as pay-per-use, leveraged

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infrastructure, capacity on demand and access for new software players. A special badge will be awarded and displayed on the G-Cloud Cloudstore website after CESG has given the supplier a certificate to mark its accreditation, which includes details of the full business impact level profile, date of validity and information about the evidence used.

G-cloud programme director Denise McDonagh said: “Getting a service accredited for use by the whole of government is pretty rare – suppliers, accreditors and CESG have had to work hard to get it done. I can probably count on both hands the total number of suppliers who have achieved it in the last five years, yet G-Cloud will quadruple or quintuple that number over the next couple of months.”

READ MORE ABOUT G-CLOUD ON P12

PUBLIC SERVICES NETWORK

Dorset County Council connects 400 sites to county-wide PSN with Kcom Dorset County Council managed to complete the initial roll out of the Public Services Network (PSN) for Dorset in time for this summer’s sporting events. The Dorset PSN (DPSN) Framework Agreement was procured in July last year and Dorset County Council was the first public sector body to subscribe to a range of PSN communication services including a Wide Area Network (WAN) and unified communication services.

The network that has been created is a shared resource and any public sector body in Dorset and surrounding areas can draw upon the framework. The completion of the WAN roll-out connects 400 sites across the county including council offices, libraries and schools.

Dorset had a strict deadline to complete the transition over to the PSN before its existing

connectivity contract expired and ahead of the sporting events in August. “We’re delighted that together Kcom and the County Council have been able to complete the roll out of the WAN within our deadline,” says Elaine Taylor, director for corporate resources and chair of the DPSN Partnership Board at Dorset County Council. “The completion is a tremendous step in creating easier pathways for shared public services for Dorset residents by enabling more coordinated working between government departments and agencies in the county.”

Kcom is the first PSN Service Provider to achieve PSN certification from the Cabinet Office for its Managed Wide Area Network (WAN) solution, the network implemented for the DPSN. READ MORE ABOUT PSN starting on P7

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IT SECURITY

Dedicated centres planned to combat cyber security threat Universities are being invited by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to apply for grants to run two new dedicated Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), that will train postgraduates to maintain the UK’s security in the face of growing cyber threats.

The centres will enhance the nation’s academic capability across all aspects of the field and are part of the response to the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Programme. The call for bids is part of a joint approach to the National Cyber Security programme between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), EPSRC, GCHQ and the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA).

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Skills said: “If the UK is to achieve its growth ambitions and maintain its reputation for world class capability in cyber security, it is vital that we look to discover, develop and nurture the UK’s next generation of doctoral-level cyber security experts. The Centres for Doctoral Training are a key component of achieving the skills blend the UK needs and I would like to encourage novel responses to the call that reflect well on the innovation of the discipline as a whole”.

Cyber security research encompasses a range of challenges to which many academic disciplines can contribute. To ensure the key issues are covered adequately by the CDTs in combination, EPSRC wants proposals for the Centres to focus all or most of their effort on one of two research domains.

These are set out in the call document, while technological issues feature heavily, adequate consideration of ‘the human element’ of cyber security – behaviour, people and processes – will be essential for success.

Minister for cyber security Francis Maude said: “In the National Cyber Security Strategy,

the Government emphasised the importance of expanding the UK’s cyber skills base to take advantage of the opportunities cyber space presents and protect our interests where required. Academia has a vital role to play in fostering our future cyber security talent, and we have therefore committed significant investment to deliver the first two Centres of Doctoral Training in Cyber Security. We believe these centres will make an important contribution to further enhancing our world-class cyber security academic and research community here in the UK.” David Delpy, EPSRC’s chief executive said: “The centres will be required to address the broad range of issues involved in cyber security, from the technical to sociological.

They will have to call on a wide range of expertise and deliver the multidisciplinary training we need to underpin the work of the UK’s next generation cyber security experts.”

The CDTs will be expected to graduate at least eight students from each of three successive annual cohorts, giving a minimum of 24 students produced by each CDT over its lifetime. Efficient use of the sponsors’ funding and/or contributions from other sources may augment this number.

The students’ doctoral training will last for four years. It will comprise a mixture of masters-level education in a range of subjects addressing key areas of relevance to cyber security and a related challenging and original research project. The first cohort of students in each CDT is expected to start around October/November 2013.

Funding for the CDTs could reach £8 million over seven years and will come from a variety of sources, including the National Cyber Security Programme. EPSRC will oversee the management of the centres.

READ MORE ABOUT CYBER SECURITY ON P14

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Cabinet Office spends almost £100,000 on Facebook adverts A number of public sector organisations are spending substantial sums placing adverts on the popular social networking site Facebook.

According to the BBC, as of 19 July the Cabinet Office had spent £98,418.25 with Facebook on advertising its ‘This is Great Britain’ campaign. A spokesman said the campaign had achieved 472 million ad impressions leading to 782,000 ad clicks - and across the 13 Facebook pages, 583,000 ‘likes’ had been generated.

Having submitted a Freedom of Information request, the BBC also found that the state is spending a substantial

amount on the recently listed site.

Some have suggested that despite the obvious success, the campaign could have been just as successful without the spend.

Those working in the Search Engine Optimisation field have argued that well written content would have also attracted a high number of clicks. With recent reports also suggesting that many likes on Facebook are derived from spurious accounts, it could also be argued that such results would be more genuine.

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NEWS IN BRIEF Bristol CC wants more SMEs to bid for ICT contracts Bristol City Council has announced changes to its ICT strategy aimed at ensuring that within the next three years 25 per cent of its technology budget will be spent with local SMEs. The council is planning a more flexible approach towards the procurement of ICT goods and services on which it spends about £25m each year. On 4th September, the council held an event intended to inform small local technology companies about potential opportunities with the council.

Suppliers discussed how they can make their services accessible to the Cabinet Office’s G-Cloud programme without large bidding costs.

Jon Rogers, deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, said: “Bristol has a thriving digital sector with many small and medium sized companies. But traditionally the SME sector has faced too many obstacles to winning work from the public sector.

“The government has recognised the need to change this policy and we support this move wholeheartedly. Our aim is that within a few years, more than a quarter of our annual spend on ICT is directed towards SMEs, and I hope Bristol firms will be in a position to gain from this.”

Data breaches soar The number of data breaches reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has jumped by over 1000 percent, according to data released after a Freedom of Information request.

From November 2007 to November 2008, local government reported just 11 data breaches, but by 2012 this figure had grown to 188.

Several high profile data breaches involving councils have taken place this year. In June, Dumfries and Galloway Council exposed the salary information of around 9,000 employees shortly after announcing a new data protection policy. In July, a spreadsheet published by Islington Borough Council revealed personal data relating to 2,376 of its citizens.

The ICO recently released separate figures showing that it had issued almost £2 million of fines in the 12 months leading up to July 2012, more than three times the amount of penalties handed out the previous year.

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HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING

Emerald and Iridis 3 supercomputers enter service The UK’s most powerful GPU-based supercomputer, ‘Emerald’, entered into service in July this year alongside the ‘Iridis 3’ system. The combination of these two high performance computing systems will give businesses and academics unprecedented access to their super-fast processing capability.

Using the technology, researchers will tackle areas ranging from healthcare (Tamiflu and swine flu); astrophysics (real-time pulsar detection application for the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array Project to deploy the world’s most powerful radio telescope), bioinformatics

(analysis and statistical modelling of wholegenome sequencing data); climate change modelling; complex engineering systems; simulating 3G and 4G communications networks and developing new tools for processing and managing medical images.

Both supercomputers were unveiled at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), which will host and operate Emerald, a general purpose system utilising NVIDIA’s Tesla accelerator technology. Iridis 3 is being hosted by the University of Southampton.

They have been funded by a £3.7 million

ICT SPENDING

TRAINING

BCS encourages IT skills updates in readiness for Digital by Default BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT is encouraging people to update their IT skills in order to take advantage of the government’s online services as it moves towards the Digital by Default agenda.

Digital by Default, part of the government’s agenda for public services, expects departments to ensure that all transactional services are available through digital channels within three years.

Martyn Lambert, director of qualifications at the Institute says: “This is a really important step forward and reflects the nature of our information society today.

This is going to intensify the demand for IT skills across society, not only among the IT professionals building the systems, but also the staff who use technology on the front line and the general public who want to take advantage of the services on offer.”

The Government has put into place a career plan to attract and develop IT professionals

who will develop and implement online services. However, the Institute believes there’s also a need to ensure that people on the front line of services and those using them have the necessary skills to access the services.

Martyn continues: “Today, we naturally assume that everyone is digitally literate.

However, that’s not the case. There are still a vast number of people who have never been online and while some of those don’t want to go online, many others do, but lack confidence or don’t know where to go to learn.”

Lambert added: “This is a really exciting time. Digital by Default is not just about government ambitions - it reflects the fact that people’s expectations of how they obtain public services are going to change. The key to success is ensuring that every citizen has the necessary skills they need to take full advantage of our information society.”

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INFRASTRUCTURE

Sunderland joins Cisco NVI Alliance Cisco has donated £300k worth of funding to Sunderland City Council, which will establish it as its newest National Virtual Incubator Alliance Member.

The National Virtual Incubator (NVI) is a sustainable public technology network designed to help accelerate the growth of start-ups and SMEs by facilitating contact and collaboration with like-minded businesses, partners, advisors and investors. Launched in 2011, in conjunction with founding partners Ravensbourne College, Greenwich Council, JANET UK and Birmingham Science Park Aston, the NVI spans the entire UK and consists of a series of nodes connected to higher education establishments, research clusters and science parks through the JANET network.

It will link the new Sunderland node to

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GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of a £145 million Government investment in e-infrastructure. Professor Anne Trefethen, professor of scientific computing, University of Oxford said: “The high set-up costs both in terms of equipment and expertise can be a major barrier to SMEs expanding into newer or bigger markets. This new centre will make it easier for them to step up into the next league. In turn, the supercomputers will help university-led researchers work with industrial partners to develop and test innovative new products and technologies.”

the city’s flagship software centre and existing innovation hubs such as the e.Volve centre, enabling SMEs to connect with other organisations in the network.

Tom Baker, head of ICT at Sunderland City Council, said: “Sunderland is well established as a hotbed of software and technology talent, and this is something that the city council has pioneered through improved infrastructure and significant investment.

“The support we have had from external partners, like Cisco, in developing an infrastructure has been fantastic.

This investment will ensure that our businesses are more plugged into the technology network than ever before.”

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Cabinet Office reports on ICT savings The government has made some £249 million worth of savings in ICT spend over the last financial year, the Cabinet Office has revealed.

Spending on ICT and digital services accounts for £104 million and savings of £145 million have been achieved on ICT projects. This is part of a ruthless approach to eradicating wasteful spending across Whitehall which saved the taxpayer over £5.5bn last year in total.

Maude highlighted the significant savings made by the Government Digital Service for departments, such as maintaining the Businesslink website for a fraction of its previous cost and re-designing the G-Cloud store cheaper and more quickly in-house compared to the traditional approach of using larger service integrators.

Spending controls to cut expenditure by departments on IT contracts, property, marketing, temporary staff and consultancy were driven by the Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG).

Maude stated: “There’s never an excuse for wasting taxpayers’ money in the way it was in the past, but given the size of the deficit this Government inherited and the ongoing tough economic climate, we were determined to cut the fat from Whitehall.

“Because our controls on spending are working well and saving unprecedented amounts of money, I’m determined they will be a permanent feature of good governance.”

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PSN SUMMIT

The Public Services Network (PSN) will soon be a reality, but what will it mean for public bodies? Steve Mallinson, conference director at Public Sector Connect says all will be revelaed at the Public Services Network Summit 2012, taking place on 12th September 2012 at the QEII Conference Centre, London Let’s start at the very beginning and keep it simple all the way through. What is the PSN and why should you be interested? The PSN has been described as ‘the network of networks’. It will enable cost reduction and greater efficiencies by standardising networks and ICT services, making procurement simpler and the sharing of services easier.

So, why should you be interested?

Well, if you are a civil servant you will be operating with the PSN as the foundation of the Government’s ICT strategy by 2014 and if you are from the wider public sector and third sector, although not mandatory, adoption of the PSN by your organisation could deliver major benefits. For the supply side, it represents a massive opportunity to become part of a major change process that is ‘commercial, technical and transformational’, to borrow a phrase from BT. MEETING BUSINESS NEEDS Above all, PSN is the foundation for the technical solutions designed to meet the pressing business need of doing more with less faced by all public service organisations.

In an effort to ensure that the PSN message is clearly understood across all areas of the public and third sectors, the Public Services Network Summit, a large scale conference and exhibition, will form part of a series of events being organised by the Cabinet Office in September. The summit will bring together all areas of the public sector, PSNGB and other potential PSN suppliers and is a one day event that will be free of charge to invited public sector individuals.

The event will feature keynote presentations from Craig Eblett, programme director, Public Services Network, Cabinet Office; Phil Gibson, chairman, PSNGB; Noelle Godfrey, member of the Local CIO Council and CIO at Cambridgeshire County Council; Peter Jones, lead on PBSA/deputy director, on-line services at the Welsh Government and many others.

Procurement of PSN and associated services

by Central Government is mandated via the Government Procurement Service frameworks and the same procurement route is being strongly championed for all other public bodies. Awareness and understanding of

PSN by elements of the public sector is not, however, universal. A recent survey conducted by the summit organisers, Public Sector Connect, showed that 37 per cent of public and third sector respondents didn’t know what PSN was, and a surprising 71 per cent have no plans to become PSN compliant.

Clearly, the communications effort already put in motion by Cabinet Office and backed by PSNGB (the trade body representing the PSN supply side) has some way to go but is set to be an ongoing process to win the hearts and minds of public servants across the country.

The summit plenary presentations will be followed by a series of one hour breakout sessions, each dealing with a particular aspect of PSN, such as security issues, how to achieve compliance, sharing of services etc.

An essential element of any day such as this is, of course, the opportunity for delegates to network with their peers and with a range of suppliers in the dual purpose

Written by Steve Mallinson, conference director, Public Sector Connect

THE PUBLIC SERVICES NETWORK SUMMIT 2012: DRIVING BUSINESS BENEFITS

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A recent survey conducted by organisers Public Sector Connect showed that 37 per cent of public and third sector respondents didn’t know what PSN was and a surprising 71 per cent have no plans to become PSN compliant. exhibition and refreshment area, and this is more than adequately catered for at the summit venue, the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster.

PLENARY SPEAKERS Conference Chair – Phil Gibson, Chairman: PSNGB Phil Gibson is a business development director in the Public Sector team at Virgin Media Business. He has been involved with PSN since its inception, chairing the workstream that developed the operating model and the challenging governance processes that are needed to make it work.

Previous to this he was head of strategic business at Cable and Wireless Worldwide

and head of local government at Energis, where he created ‘Government Connect’ as a response to the need for better information sharing in the wake of the Victoria Climbié tragedy. Phil has also held senior positions at NextiraOne, Alcatel and BT where he began his career in engineering.

Noelle Godfrey, member of CIO Council and CIO: Cambridgeshire County Council Noelle Godfrey is head of IT at Cambridgeshire County Council where she has responsibility for the provision of ICT services to the Council and key partners. She is a member of the Local CIO Council, representing the East of England and a director of E2BN (East of England Regional Broadband E

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Delivering the communications networks of tomorrow telent Technology Solutions Ltd. plays a pivotal role in the delivery of communications networks to every single person reading this advert, and you probably didn’t even realise. telent is the team that delivers and maintains the UK’s national communications networks and has been at the heart of it for over 50 years. Every time you pick up a telephone, use the motorways or rail network, commute across London on the tube or bus, or even when you dial 999, there’s a good chance you are coming into contact with a piece of technology or infrastructure that telent has provided and is actively maintaining. telent specialises in delivering mission critical, high availability, ICT solutions on behalf of Public Sector, Emergency Services, Transport and Rail, and Enterprise organisations. telent’s expertise in designing and rolling out large IP control systems, unified communications applications, local and wide area networks, and high capacity voice and data systems, is unrivalled in the UK. As a true services company, telent is focussed on helping customers extract more value from their current assets, enhancing and transforming their infrastructure based on a whole life cost approach. telent takes a smarter approach to building and transforming networks and this capability can provide the perfect solution for you. telephone: 0800 783 7761 email: services@telent.com www.telent.com

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PSN SUMMIT E Consortia delivering ICT services to schools in the region). She is also the project director for Connecting Cambridgeshire, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Superfast broadband rollout programme. Noelle has over twenty years experience in public sector IT and previous roles have included IT strategy development, service management and large-scale project management.

As part of the drive to achieve greater efficiencies Cambridgeshire County Council have adopted a strategic sourcing approach which includes innovative shared services arrangements to facilitate streamlined public services delivery. Noelle has been involved in a number of these initiatives, including services to integrated health and social care teams and shared back office services between Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire County Councils. She has also led on the establishment of Cambridgeshire Public Services Network (CPSN) to provide IT connectivity and related services to a number of local authorities and fire authorities in the region as well as to the voluntary and community sector in Cambridgeshire.

Peter Jones, lead on PBSA/ deputy director on-line services, Welsh Government Peter Jones is head of online services and infrastructure in the Office of the CIO for Wales. His role includes responsibility for PSBA (Public Sector Broadband Aggregation), the network that provides connectivity to more than 100 public sector organisations in Wales including health, local government,

the emergency services and higher and further education. He led the procurement of a single broadband service for the public sector in Wales five years ago, before taking on different roles in Welsh Government. Peter, who is an MBA, has had significant senior management experience across a range of disciplines, including business development, communications, organisational change and strategy. He has been an editor of newspapers and magazines and held senior positions in digital media as well as the Welsh Government.

Before joining the OCIO in December 2011, he led business management and development in the Department for Strategic Planning, Finance and Performance in the Welsh Government.

Neil Rogers, president - Worldwide Government: BT Global Services PSN Neil Rogers was appointed president – Global Government at BT Global Services in August 2010. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of BT’s relationships with government departments and the delivery agencies that support them. It’s a challenging role – the portfolio of accounts for which Neil is responsible includes some of the largest and most complex networking and IT projects in the world.

Prior to taking on his current role, Neil was global chief procurement officer for BT Group, responsible for procurement, the supply chain and property worldwide. During his three-year tenure, he transformed BT’s procurement processes, helping the company achieve cost savings and performance improvements that had a material impact on

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its recent turnaround. Before this, he was the managing director responsible for the initial stages of BT’s multi-billion-pound network transformation programme, 21CN. One of the largest programmes of its type anywhere in the world, 21CN now impacts almost every aspect of BT’s business, the design of its networks and IT systems, through its business processes, to the way it delivers customer service.

Earlier highlights from Neil’s career with BT include the growth of BT’s solutions business from £1 billion to £3 billion over five years, negotiation of a $3 billion network outsourcing deal with Reuters (which included the acquisition of financial services extranet company, Radianz) and a period as director – Global Business Markets, during which he managed the transfer of 2,500 people and several million pounds worth of assets into BT’s joint venture with AT&T, Concert Communications.

Before joining BT in 1990, Neil worked for the British electronics company, Plessey, and also in the telecoms industry in the Middle East. A graduate of Oxford University, he is a passionate Manchester United supporter who enjoys playing golf whenever he has time. L FURTHER INFORMATION Those who think they should have been invited but haven’t received an invitation and would like to attend should give the Public Sector Connect team a call on 0161 482 7850. If you do qualify for a free place and there is space available they will book your place for you.

For further information visit networksummit2012.publicsectorconnect.org

Hampshire & Kent County Councils complete UK’s first live testing of PSN with Global Crossing & Virgin Media Business This project delivered services successfully through the PSN model, and has helped to test and refine the processes necessary for the public sector to share services and applications via the PSN, ushering in a new era of collaboration and cost efficiency for all Government organisations.

As well as being a key success milestone for the PSN Programme, which aims to revolutionise the way HMG procures telecommunications technology, Project Pathway has demonstrated effective collaboration between multiple suppliers and public sector bodies focused on a common cause. This pathfinder initiative has proved PSN works, by providing real business solutions for real business users.

“Pathway marks a significant and tangible step towards more efficient and joined up public services; it shows that PSN is no longer a theory but a reality,” said John Stubley from the central PSN Team.

John Taylor, the senior responsible owner (SRO) for the PSN Programme on behalf of the CIO Delivery Board commented: “Achievement of this milestone is a real credit to all those involved in this groundbreaking effort. It can only serve to increase confidence that PSN is the way forward for Local Government and Central Departments alike, so that we can all reap the benefits by driving down costs and increasing the effectiveness of public services delivery.”

The PSN Programme aims to improve substantially the efficiency of telecommunications across the public sector by sharing deployed infrastructure, establishing and improving methods for purchasing networks and the services that use them and realising significant savings

for organisations through more common approaches. Kent and Hampshire County Council have already delivered approximately £4.7 million annual savings through aggregation of local authority and education networks.

Project Pathway’s successful completion paves the way for other public sector organisations to follow suit and increase the impetus towards their take-on of PSN services in their respective business environments.

“The public sector needs to work together in procuring and delivering services. Cost effectiveness is a key driver and this initiative shows that it doesn’t need to come at the expense of innovation and creativity” said leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber.

Roger Gough, cabinet member for business strategy, performance & health reform, Kent County Council, commented: “Project Pathway has demonstrated that PSN works in a real-life business and public sector environment. Anyone who previously was sceptical as to whether the collaboration and cost efficiency associated with PSN was achievable, can now have their doubts laid to rest.”

“Our experience, together with Hampshire County Council and our service providers, Global Crossing and Virgin Media Business, has helped to make a number of practical changes to the standards and accreditation processes involved in PSN, reducing timescales and removing unnecessary costs. In short, every public sector organisation considering PSN will benefit from what Project Pathway has achieved.”

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PSN

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Written by Neil Mellor, PSNGB

PSNGB

PSN: RETHINKING HOW PUBLIC SERVICES OPERATE AND DELIVER

The creation of a single network infrastructure for all public sector bodies promises to be a long but important journey, and it has a big contribution to make in meeting the age of austerity head-on.

With the launch in June this year of the PSN Services framework comes opportunity for a real change.

Neil Mellor, marketing director of the recently formed industry association for PSN suppliers, PSNGB, explains how it is working with the Cabinet Office to bring PSN to life.

When asked by a journalist what was most likely to blow a government off course, Harold Macmillan reportedly replied: “Events, my dear boy, events”. No-one can deny that the four years since 2008 have brought more than our fair share of events and that the economic reverberations of these now challenge every part of the public sector. But even before the financial crisis took hold, work was already underway on a programme that today holds the potential to help mitigate the impact of the fiscal squeeze on public services and to provide a catalyst not only for cash savings, but also tangible improvements in service.

In 2006, led by the Cabinet Office, collaborative work started between the public sector and key communications suppliers that paved the way to the Public Services Network (PSN). Working together in a way unprecedented in any country or industry, the technical standards, security, service management, governance and commercial framework took shape for what is effectively a secure internet for public services providers. With the completion of that work, the UK now has a unique opportunity.

NETWORK OF NETWORKS PSN is the foundation of the Government’s ICT Strategy, providing an assured ‘network of networks’ for sharing services as well as encouraging efficiency and collaboration across public sector organisations. The past twelve months have seen the vision of the Government ICT Strategy come into sharper focus, driven by the need to reduce cost whilst protecting or improving the quality of public services, and PSN’s pivotal role in that vision is fast being realised. The codes or standards that define PSN have been in place since July 2011 and now suppliers and users are completing PSN certification to verify their compliance with these and gain common information assurance, applicable right across government. The fact that local authorities are amongst the vanguard achieving early PSN ‘Code of Connection’ certification as users highlights that although central government is mandated to achieve PSN compliance by 2014, there is equal or even greater appetite for adoption at the local and

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Can the existence of PSN and secure cloud services be used as a catalyst for regional economic development, encouraging the growth of small, innovative application developers? regional level. The two national PSN Frameworks have also now been let, allowing customers across the public sector to procure network connectivity and services more efficiently and making tangible an open, competitive and accessible marketplace for interoperable ICT services. Some of the largest public service providers including major central government departments, health, police and local authorities are already planning to use the PSN Frameworks.

Another significant step in the journey towards PSN has been the incorporation

and launch in June this year of the PSNGB, the industry association for PSN suppliers, with membership already extending to nearly thirty companies, both large and small, that are collectively working with the Cabinet Office to bring PSN to life.

PSNGB is a formal part of the PSN Operating Model and brings industry expertise and commitment to the programme, helping to grow an open and competitive marketplace for members’ services and to highlight to customers and industry the benefits of moving to PSN. E

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PSNGB E TRANSITION Across the public sector, the transition to PSN has started, with many organisations already developing plans to become compliant. But whilst this is undoubtedly important they must also look beyond this to what the PSN will ultimately enable for their organisation – in other words, the innovation that follows PSN certification and the interoperability it delivers.

For example, how can networks and voice or unified communications services used by a Council be shared with others in the region, aggregating demand to improve value for money, creating a common infrastructure and cutting support costs? How can storage and processing or applications from data centres best be shared? Can the existence of PSN and secure cloud services be used as a catalyst for regional economic development, encouraging the growth of small, innovative application developers? Or how can public service workers can work more flexibly and securely from different locations whilst sharing appropriate information across organisational boundaries?

The PSNGB sees the transition to PSN as more than just an opportunity to simplify and lower the cost of networking, though this in itself is significant. By putting in place a ‘common gauge railway’ for ICT across the public sector, PSN can be a catalyst for public service innovation – bringing opportunities to transform working practices, collaborate much more effectively, improve efficiency and make a tangible difference to communities and citizens across the UK. A JOINED-UP APPROACH TO WORKING As well as saving cash on ICT in the short term - by 2014 central government departments alone could be saving up to £130m a year because of the PSN - the public sector can reap much greater financial and service benefits from a more joined up approach to working, breaking down barriers between different agencies and authorities. By making it easier for public service organisations to buy and connect ICT networks and to share services, PSN is creating opportunities that haven’t existed before. In practical terms this could mean Local Authorities, Health and Police working together with a common network serving them all at appropriate security levels. It can mean a Health Trust collaborating through conference calls and shared information with Social Services, doctors and voluntary groups or community projects to smooth the process of hospital discharge, freeing beds and ensuring continuity of care for patients. It can mean ICT services used by one local authority being shared with others to remove duplication, improve sustainability and promote good practice.

It’s clear, however, that managing the transition to PSN and the business change required to realise significant improvements isn’t always easy. Even something as seemingly straightforward as sharing information on a conference call between agencies involves different working practices and a cultural shift in the way organisations behave. Research

commissioned by different PSNGB members has highlighted a common conclusion; that the greatest barrier to PSN adoption and innovation is the cultural challenge involved, closely allied to a lack of awareness amongst the non-technical community of PSN. The research also revealed that there are many in the public sector who are less clear about what PSN is and can enable, or even where their organisation stands in adopting it. This reinforces the recent recommendation from the Public Administration Select Committee that more needs to be done to make sure knowledge about how modern information systems and technology can be used to improve public services is shared effectively across professional groups within the civil services and not restricted to the IT crowd. But there’s also very encouraging news in the research findings, revealing widespread optimism towards the PSN programme – with many public servants considering it crucial to their organisation’s efficiency drive. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of public servants who consider themselves well informed about PSN regard its adoption to be important or very important to their organisation’s efficiency programme.

The same research found that many public servants underestimate the role that PSN can play as a platform for innovation but unless they start to take this view, PSN risks being seen just as centralised procurement rather than also an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how public services operate and deliver.

The PSN is all about enabling innovation and transformation rather than being an end in itself, and the PSNGB is now playing a leading role in emphasising the benefit of services running across PSN and new ways of working and delivering services. As a first step, PSNGB is running a series of events, in partnership with the Cabinet Office, to provide an update on the latest progress of PSN, explain the Frameworks and offer advice on how to achieve PSN compliance, transition to PSN and to reap the wider benefits it offers.

LEADING ROLE Phil Gibson, chairman of PSNGB, said: “We are delighted to be taking a leading role in making the PSN real and vibrant. Together with the Cabinet Office and GPS we are encouraging the public sector to work with our members to see how transition can be effected and to realise the benefits. PSN is very much open for business.

Our members, who are both larger suppliers and SMEs, have PSN services available today.

Now the procurement route is open to make PSN benefits tangible, accessible and achievable to user and supplier alike. We look forward to the July events and to growing our association to further benefit the industry in future.”

Craig Eblett, PSN programme director in the Cabinet Office, said: “I welcome the incorporation of PSNGB and their leadership on behalf of industry in delivering the PSN Roadshows with the PSN Programme team.

PSNGB recognises and isencouraging the

PSN Suppliers 2e2 UK Airwave Azzurri Communications BT Cable & Wireless Worldwide Capita Cassidian UK CSC Computacenter Daisy Communications Easynet Global Services Everything Everywhere Freedom Communications Fujitsu Global Crossing (Level 3) Icom KCom Logicalis NextiraOne PageOne Communications Phoenix IT Group Siemens Communications Specialist Computer Centre Telefónica Telent Technology Services Thales UK Uniworld Communications Virgin Media Business Vodafone

increased competition the Frameworks will bring and I look forward to PSNGB continuing to help enable innovation and savings for the public sector and create good business opportunities for industry.” L FURTHER INFORMATION Aimed at potential PSN users across public sector organisations, PSNGB is to hold events around the UK in September, taking the message to a wider audience and enabling potential PSN adopters to talk first hand with the people who created and are now delivering the PSN programme and services. More information will be published through the PSNGB website at www.psngb.org.uk

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

11

IT Procurement:G-Cloud

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G-CLOUD

HOW HIGH WILL THE G-CLOUD RISE?

Since the first G-Cloud framework was launched in February, purchases worth more than £1m have been made through it.

Although it has recently faced criticisms, SMEs make up more than 75 per cent of the suppliers listed on the CloudStore.

G-Cloud is designed to promote greater use of small and medium-sized IT suppliers by civil servants, to establish quicker procurement and shorter contract lifetimes, and enable re-use of IT across more government departments.

It is hoped the G-Cloud framework will revolutionise the purchasing, management and delivery of public sector IT services and the way suppliers work with government.

Back in May, Denise McDonagh took over from Chris Chant as head of the Government’s G-Cloud programme as suppliers readied themselves for the second incarnation of the G-Cloud Framework. McDonagh is seen as another of the reformers in Whitehall IT and is likely to pursue a similar drive as her predecessor. In an interview with Computer Weekly last year, she said: “We’ve got to the point where things have to change.

We can’t continue to deliver IT in the way we do. I have many examples of frustrated customers, as they can’t get IT quickly enough and at a price they can afford.”

TOP WHITEHALL ROLE McDonagh has worked in government IT for over 30 years, beginning her career at one of the most junior levels to eventually take one of the top Whitehall IT roles. During the last 10 years she has been focused on dealing with big suppliers - one of her key roles was director of outsourcing at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, before moving to the Home Office.

McDonagh implemented an ‘extend and blend programme’ in 2009 for the Home Office, which broke up supplier duplication on a number of systems management contracts within the department, including desktops, hosting, and networks. That activity rationalised and improved hosting capabilities and took out more than £100m in costs over the life of the contracts. The experience positioned the department to become one of the government’s Foundation Delivery Partners for its G-Cloud strategy.

In her first blog post back in May, prior to the official launch of G-Cloud 2, McDonagh heaped praise on Chris Chant and his efforts to get the G-Cloud programme off the ground and raise its profile, but despite the positive words from McDonagh, it is clear that outgoing Chant was unhappy with some issues, after he launched a scathing attack on

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GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

the government for its “unacceptable” quality of IT in his final blog post. Chant stated: “It’s 30 years or more since government first developed IT systems inhouse, 20 years since outsourcing became a major trend and 7 years since we should have been 100 per cent online, or digital by default as we now say.

Sure we’ve come a long way in each of those periods but, honestly, we haven’t come nearly far enough. Unacceptable IT is pervasive.”

He went on: “Real progress has been blocked by many things including an absence of capability in both departments and their suppliers, by a strong resistance to change, by the perverse incentives of contracts that mean its cheaper to pay service credits than to fix the problem and by an unwillingness to embrace the potential of newer and smaller players to offer status quo-busting ideas.

CIOs across government, including me in various roles at the centre of government, have been guilty for too long of taking the easy path. We have done the unacceptable and thought we were doing a great job.”

FLEXIBLE PROCUREMENT McDonagh has made it clear it that she intends to drive forward further iterations of the G-Cloud framework, and ensure it has a flexible way to procure cloud services. She also stated that her team will be “working to build a pipeline of service needs from customers across the whole of the public sector so that industry has awareness of what it is that government wants and so that government entities can see what everyone else is doing.”

McDonagh also promised to work with customers and suppliers to ensure everyone gets a chance to present a view and so that she understands the opportunities and challenges the framework faces. But McDonagh also made it clear in her first blog post that the government is not currently ready for the mass adoption of the cloud.

This follows on from the warning in March by the CIO at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Phil Pavitt, who said that large government departments may struggle to meet targets on cloud computing.

McDonagh said: “Government isn’t immediately ready to make big bets on cloud – but it would be foolish not to make a series of investments and understand how it will all work together, and then learn the lessons to

allow us to increase the investment we make.

“The overriding aim is to increase choice – for too long the public sector has been locked into suppliers and products for extended periods without having the ability to take advantage of the capabilities of new entrants to the market, people with smart ideas, products that can make things simpler and easier”.

“By increasing choice – and making it easier for government to make those choices – our aims are to reduce costs, increase the speed with which we can deliver new services, improve the services that we already offer and take advantage of new capabilities”.

McDonagh added: “Cloud solutions are, I am convinced, a way to offer that choice far faster than we would otherwise be able to do so. Not every question should be answered with “we need another big SI to prime our contract” CRITICISM Responding to criticism of the level of business being done through the Cloudstore, McDonagh said: “Since we launched it in February, over a million pounds of purchases have been made through the first G-Cloud framework.

Some people who don’t really understand the landscape we’re working in may well look at that figure and assume that has had very little impact on the estimated sixteen billion pounds a year that government spends on IT. This simply highlights that what they don’t understand is the relationship between £1 spent with a G-Cloud supplier, and £1 spent with one of the 20 corporations responsible for delivering 90 per cent of government IT at present. That is why the fact that after only four months of completed data we can clearly see the shift away from the traditional suppliers to the SME’s is such a good thing.”

McDonagh rejects suggestions that there E

IT Procurement: G-Cloud

G-CLOUD

E has been a drop in interest in supplying to G-Cloud as plain wrong. She states: “The challenge for the programme now is to ensure that the buyers understand how to purchase and consume the many services being offered. This is why we have set up an online community to support buyers, to enable all who are interested in G-Cloud to work out loud; it’s by this open sharing and community learning that confidence will grow. Giving people the chance to connect with people is ultimately the only way sustainable change and learning will occur.”

“As part of our plan for propagation of the potential that G-Cloud unlocks, we’ll be setting up communities of interest – getting everyone helping and supporting each other that the G-Cloud market becomes owned and driven by customers and suppliers and helping to prevent our small, central team becoming a limiting factor in the growth and usage of cloud services in government. We will continue to facilitate, of course, but we have already been approached by enough people who want to help with this.”

FIRST ACCREDITATIONS In late August, the first Pan Government Accredited services appeared on the CloudStore. This means that these services have been formally assessed against CESG information assurance requirements and been given approval to operate at the level stated.

Traditionally every department or public body has taken every service or system it has used through these requirements to ensure they were up to standard, which has been an expensive and complicated process involving a degree of duplication. Achieving Pan Government Accreditation enables these services to be procured by multiple customers, benefiting both customer and

supplier – fitting with the G-Cloud mantra of “do it once and re-use, re-use, re-use.”

To help make it clear which services have been accredited and to what level, new badges to appear on the CloudStore to indicate when a service has reached this milestone, making it easier for buyers to identify them.

The accreditation badge is only to be used on the CloudStore. It has been designed to be a clear indicator for buyers as to what

G-Cloud for a long time, but their adoption of services was hampered by the lack of an accredited solution,” said Tracy Westall, SCC’s UK public sector director. That situation has changed, says Westall:“We took a leading role from the beginning and it was important to us to remain focused on our vision and the goal of building a real G-Cloud service - think Amazon but built for the UK public sector, hosted in an environmentally friendly UK

The challenge for the programme now is to ensure that the buyers understand how to purchase and consume. This is why we have set up an online community to enable all who are interested in G-Cloud to work out loud services have been through the rigorous PGA accreditation process and to what IL level. IL scores a service or suppliers’ level of confidentiality, integrity and availability with ratings ranging from zero, least secure, to six.

“Put more simply this means that we have checked the service and feel that it is safe enough to look after our information,” said Eleanor Stewart, engagement manager for the G-Cloud.

Nine services from SCC are the first IL2 and IL3 services to achieve PGA for CloudStore.

SCC’s Secure Multi-Tenanted Cloud service (SMTC) is part of what the company calls a broader strategy to nurture “an effective multi-tenanted environment built around concepts such as pay-per-use, leveraged infrastructure, capacity on demand and access for new software players”.

“Our customers have been talking about

data centre, operated by a UK company.”

“Achieving IL3 accreditation was always the target for us because this area has previously been closed to the broader supplier community, yet is also a key point at which massive government costs could be challenged.”

Denise McDonagh said: “Getting a service accredited for use by the whole of government is pretty rare – suppliers, accreditors and CESG have had to work hard to get it done. I can probably count on both hands the total number of suppliers who have achieved it in the last five years, yet G-Cloud will quadruple or quintuple that number over the next couple of months.” L FURTHER INFORMATION gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk Twitter: @G_Cloud_UK

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

13

IT Security

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CYBER SECURITY

Professor John Walker, ISACA

CYBERTHREATS: PROTECTING FROM THE INSIDE AND OUT

Cyberthreats have come a long way in the last few years. Professor John Walker London Chapter ISACA Security Advisory Group and CTO of Secure-Bastion believes the days of external simplex threats have now given way to multi-faceted attack vectors from both outside and inside the average organisation.

What are today’s cyberthreats? From detailed analysis of the current threat landscape, it can be seen that the hybridised nature of today’s security threats centres on hacking, serious and organised crime and the recently-arrived issue of hacktivists.

And let’s not overlook the problem of misplaced data. Add to this the dangers hosted by smart malware code such as Stuxnet and Duqu – and the possibility of a cyberwar as outlined by Foreign Secretary William Hague this year – and you have an idea of the challenges facing government.

The risk landscape changed last year largely as a result of hacktivist groups such as Anonymous and its forebears. This is no idle threat – attacks targetted the Royal Navy, the UK government, the NHS and commercial sector organisations and newspapers.

OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION? For many years there has also been some debate as to the reality of any form of cyberwar or cyberconflict – which many observers ascribe to an overactive imagination on the part of the industry’s thought leaders and analysts.

Even taking into account recent highprofile system hacks – there have been no examples of a pure cyberwar casualty. While there has never been a

cyberwar, let us not forget, neither has there been a nuclear war, but such weapons of mass destruction have nevertheless been used.

During 2010/2011 the US and UK governments announced they were focusing more on cyber defences. In doing so, they indicated that this low-cost method of delivering a potentially devastating payload to the heart of the enemy’s systems was now considered a serious threat.

In addition, the UK government also revealed that, at the end of 2010, various servers has been attacked using the notorious Zeus malware. On this same topic Foreign Secretary Hague informed a Munich security conference that the attack was considered to be part of an international effort to infect systems.

Though malware is still on the rise – the concept that today’s malware is ever more imaginative is weakening and, as a result, the anti-malware developers may be a little closer to developing ahead-of-thegame compliance technologies. This should not allow complacency.

The Infosecurity Europe show in the spring this year saw the threat of AETs – advanced evasion threats – becoming reality, but very little media attention was given to the development of more advanced AET threats that the malware bandwagon inevitably evolved.

AETs are real. They are not a product of an aggressivelybadged application but more of an imaginative mix of old code, new vulnerabilities and skill-based imagination on the part of the developer in attempting to circumvent the security of a trusted perimeter networked device, such as a firewall, Intrusion Detection System (IDS), or Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).

MULTI-FACETED ATTACK AETs are a natural evolution of the multifaceted attack vector threats.

They may also be defined as an amalgam of various

14

components that may be leveraged by criminal and cybercriminal fraternities, or sponsored international groups and hacktivists seeking to locate and infiltrate selected targets.

AETs can have many guises, including old-to-new cloaked code, insider contacts, integration into websites and the leverage of some other agent-seeking tool to order to embed itself in a micro endpoint, such as a smartphone. The evolution of AETs is a methodology combining imagination and creativity to achieve an objective.

The key question is whether your critical digital assets are protected against such evasion techniques. To qualify and quantify this question, Stonesoft, the company that discovered AETs in the latter half of 2010, conducted research into AET evolution. In addition, Gartner has concluded that AETs are real, credible and growing threat against the security of company networks and allied IT resources that protects governments, commerce and informationsharing systems. Once you consider the potential effects of AETs – and the prospect of being hit by a well-targeted payload from an AETdelivered vector – it is clear that our industry’s move to harnessing the power of cloud and virtualised resources needs to be paralleled by the development of better defences.

DEFENDING GOVERNMENT Thought also needs to be given as to how the public sector can raise its game on defending government and allied agency computer systems.

This brings us to the new and sexy world of advanced malware code such as Stuxnet and the recently-arrived Duqu darkware – dubbed `Son of Stuxnet’ by some sources. With the advent of Stuxnet we have observed the manifestation of smart code that exhibits seek and destroy capabilities capable of locating and impacting specific types of systems and allied apparatus, most notably IT control systems from specific vendors and with specific functions that include nuclear and similar platforms.

MALWARE A key feature of the multi-vectored Stuxnet malware was the inclusion of its own form of digital passport – a forged X509 digital certificate – to assure automated monitoring systems and their onlookers that it is a friend, rather than a foe. It is also worth noting that, unlike some common malware variants of the 80s, such as Casino, which really wanted E

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CYBER SECURITY E to tell you they were infecting you – this modern day code is much more subliminal.

Stuxnet is also considered to be the product of some high investment, extensive research, and long term production to craft such a welldesigned aggressive application. The next variant of this genus of smart malware is the underestimated Duqu variant, which entered the public scene in the third quarter of 2011.

Before we look at the way in which Duqu changes the IT security ballgame, let’s look at a few facts about this malcode. These are significant since, prior to being given its moniker, there were widely-reported incidents which occurred with drones operated by the US Air Force being infected with malware.

However, as the strain in question did not directly impact the operational ability of the infected craft, it was tolerated, and allowed to accompany these smart models on their missions.

Notwithstanding the malware in question did not have any designed intent to directory impact or affect the assets, it was obviously there for a reason - the malware in question was all about snooping, and the gathering of information which was passing through the bird concerned.

Shortly after the infection of the USAF drones, there was the revelation that there was had been some suspected hacking of a number of terrain and agricultural satellites. There should be no doubt whatsoever that the age of cyberconflict is now upon us and has global governments in its focus. It is therefore time to look beyond those rolled up security policies and procedures, and look to GRC frameworks such as COBIT (http://bit.ly/vtZJw8) to help secure our electronic borders, no matter where they may be hosted.

INFOSECURITY SHOWS THE THREAT Cyberattacks, security budgets and BYOD were all in the spotlight at InfoSecurity Europe in April, which demonstrated new ways to protect organisations and IT users from the threat.

Most CSOs and CISOs reported that their IT security budgets, even in the cash-strapped public sector, remaining relatively intact, which underlines the importance that information security has to all sectors of the economy. But against the backdrop of cybercrime reportedly

costing the world an amazing $380 billion a year, says Neelie Kroes, the European Commission vice-president, this is still not enough to protect IT users and citizens.

In her keynote speech at the event, Kroes said that since everyone uses computers, cyberattacks can affect everyone, meaning that cybersecurity is no longer the domain of national security authorities and needs a comprehensive solution that involves governments, businesses and individuals. To assist in this regard, she explained that the European Commission will present a plan - a European strategy for Internet security - in the third quarter of this year.

The plan will be is based around five key areas. Firstly, there is a need to build a network to respond to cyberthreats and share that information - EU member countries will be asked to guarantee their minimum

IT Security

IT AND COMPUTING FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

workplace, Simon Wise, deputy head of the Ministry of Defence’s global operations security centre, effectively vetoed the idea far as Government agencies in the security sector. At the MoD, he said in an Infosecurity Europe round table session: “We have a bring you own policy and it’s simple: Don’t!”

The key risk with BYOD, he told delegates, is the fact that unauthorised devices pose a serious threat to the rest of the network – which in the MoD’s case involves around 750,000 IP-enabled devices. Wise revealed that the MoD deals with 200 different firm’s IT systems, of which it has 20 main suppliers.

As a result, he says, its suppliers need to be more honest about their position in the market, rather than claiming they have a `magic box’ solution to cybersecurity requirements.

Wise’s caution is backed up by the results of

While there has never been a cyberwar, let us not forget, neither has there been a nuclear war, but such weapons of mass destruction have nevertheless been used. capabilities to respond adequately to threats, as well as sharing critical information in a secure and confidential manner.

Secondly, says Kroes, there needs to be a governance structure with member countries being required to establish competent authorities to centralise information and create regional forums to support collaboration with the private sector.

Kroes added that the third aim of the strategy plan will be to improve security at every point in the supply chain. The fourth aim will centre on the creation of vibrant IT security market. The fifth prong of the EC’s strategy, she explained, is that Internet security is not a Europe-only problem, but an international one, meaning that everyone must be involved in the creation of a more secure Internet.

Despite the underlying theme this year being about the increasing trend towards BYOD (bring-your-own-device) into the

joint survey between PricewaterhouseCoopers and the organisers of Infosecurity Europe, which found that one in seven large organisations has been hacked in the last year – and with 20 per cent of organisations spending less than just one per cent of their IT budget on information security. Researchers found that as a result, the number of large organisations being hacked into is at a record high, with the overall cost of security breaches to UK plc measured well into the billions of pounds mark a year.

The survey – which took in responses from a total of 447 UK organisations – found that 70 per cent of large organisations have detected significant attempts to break into their networks over the last year – a record high. On average, each large organisation suffered 54 significant attacks by an unauthorised outsider during 2011 - twice the level in 2010 - whilst 15 per cent of large organisations had their networks successfully penetrated by hackers. L

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However with more and more firms moving to open-source alternatives, in particular Drupal, Joomla And WordPress, is there something you might be missing? Each program is well established in a competitive marketplace coming through major version transitions in the last 18 months, with

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in cutting-edge website development. We have developed solutions for Public Sector clients using the latest trends with great success and, importantly, at a fraction of the cost against other, out-dated solutions.

We believe that we can offer solutions and improvements for all types of business, no matter the budget or requirement. Big Boy Media is essentially about 100 per cent customer satisfaction and value for money.

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TotalMobile: The Only Enterprise Mobile Solution Consilium are the only provider on the market to be able to supply a Mobile Solution that is genuinely flexible enough to work for every department of an organisation.

With 27 years experience providing efficiency saving mobile solutions to Local Government, Consilium have a unique insight into the needs of various departments. The TotalMobile solution lets almost any kind of remote worker stay connected to the back office through a mobile device. This saves time, cuts administration, boosts efficiency and productivity and allows the council to improve service delivery.

• • • •

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Works on any device (Apple, BlackBerry, Windows, Android) Easy integration, simple to make changes in-house Securely access back office data Complete and submit electronic forms and capture images and signatures Schedule and manage work and staff in real time

Please visit www.ctechs.co.uk/enterprise-solution to find out more or register interest for our upcoming seminar. Alternatively give us a call to arrange a free consultation on 02890 330111

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Enterprise-level mobile solutions are a big topic right now, with providers striving to produce solutions that will work throughout an organisation. Consilium’s TotalMobile™ product has already achieved success as an Enterprise solution within Local Government, with Newcastle City Council being the first of many.

Before implementing TotalMobile™ from Consilium, Newcastle City Council was under pressure to deliver savings whilst protecting front-line services in the face of funding cuts.

The council chose to tackle this challenge by addressing back office efficiency through the use of IT and mobile working at an enterprise level.

As a flexible, device-agnostic solution, TotalMobile™ is suitable to implement across various departments of an organisation.

Newcastle City Council has benefited from taking this enterprise-wide approach and has adopted TotalMobile™ as the only solution for the range of departments which they needed to mobilise. Newcastle City Council initially implemented TotalMobile™ in their gas servicing and repairs, electrical testing and regional traffic signals service departments.

BENEFITS They experienced a range of benefits after implementation. Productivity improved by around 10 per cent, sickness levels reduced, the carbon footprint is smaller and spend on fuel and accommodation costs have been cut.

Back office administration costs have also been significantly reduced, while customer satisfaction and staff morale have both improved as a result of using TotalMobile™.

After the success for these departments, the council have recently decided to roll out the solution to their Home Care department.

Neil Golightly, head of performance planning and programmes within the Environment and Regeneration Directorate, was involved in TotalMobile™’s initial deployment in the council and was delighted with the results: “TotalMobile™, as an enterprise solution has delivered efficiencies and value for money to the council. I believe we have bought the best mobile system as it’s currently delivering a range of solutions on both Smartphone and tablet.”

CUSTOMER SERVICE Consilium’s excellent customer service was also a major factor in the selection of TotalMobile™ as an enterprise solution: “I believe with Consilium we have identified people we can work with, not just deliver us technical solutions and walk away. From Consilium’s chief executive and right through the organisation, I believe that they have gone the extra mile to understand our business and build relationships

Newcastle City Council has benefited from taking an enterprise-wide approach and has adopted TotalMobile™ as the only solution for the range of departments which they needed to mobilise. with our people. This can only be a good thing and lead to mutual success for us both.”

The TotalMobile™ solution can effectively be used by every department and remote worker role in your organisation. Flexibility makes TotalMobile™ one of the only genuinely Enterprise-level mobile solution on the market.

Device choice - TotalMobile™ works natively across Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows devices. Choose the smartphone or tablet that suits each different role and ensure a great user experience.

Functionality - The solution can be configured to provide all the functionality required by different types of workers; inspectors, operatives, case workers, enforcement officers, maintenance workers, engineers and more. TotalMobile™ also works for various departments in your organisation; Adult Social Care, Community Nursing, Revenues and Benefits, Housing, Environmental Services and more.

Integration - simple integration with

almost any back office system.

Flexibility - it’s simple to make changes in-house as the mobile working needs of your teams evolve. You can update forms or add new ones with ease.

Offline working - wherever your people need to be, they can complete jobs even when they lose connectivity.

Control - enter, schedule and manage work and staff in real time. Receive detailed reports automatically.

Implementing one solution in various departments is the simplest and most cost effective way to equip remote workers.

A mobile working strategy can generate cost savings, increase productivity and improve service delivery. L FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 02890 330111 E-mail: info@ctechs.co.uk.

Web: www.ctechs.co.uk

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17

Join a winning team Siemens Enterprise Communications is already delivering PSN services across the UK to 200,000 users and can show you demonstrable business benefits over and above the aggregation of network services.

Our solutions have been designed specifically for PSN, with security embedded, so protecting your data is at the heart of everything we do.

Let us help you build your business case – call 0800 158 5236 www.siemens-enterprise.com/UK/PSN @SiemensEntPSN

Siemens Enterprise Communications Š 2012 Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG. Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG is a Trademark Licensee of Siemens AG.

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PSN SECURITY – THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT

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PSN initiatives need to go beyond ticking boxes, says Dr Graham Buckberry, Siemens Enterprise Communications Government organisations must embrace the Public Services Network (PSN) vision if the ‘network of networks’ is to deliver the consistency, flexibility and significant cost savings the public sector requires now and in the future.

The PSN has a number of critical success factors that must be fulfilled for the vision to become a reality, but none as fundamental as security. Security is the single most important enabler in the adoption of PSN services. It follows that a robust, reliable and consistent security model has been a key requirement of the PSN since its inception.

By employing a clear set of pan-government security standards and policies, the PSN should offer all parties a guaranteed level of security, creating a bond of trust between PSN-connected organisations. Public sector organisations are well aware of security threats, for example, in a recent FIFO request HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) disclosed that its offices in Wales recorded 990 security incidents in the 12 months to July 2012.

SCALABILITY IS THE KEY The value of the PSN lies in the ability of government organisations to securely share data without creating complex information assurance challenges that cause barriers to adoption. The simplicity of operation offered by the PSN is dependent on every organisation and the Supplier community using scalable and truly multi-tenanted systems.

It also has to be recognised that any ICT environment is only as secure as its weakest link. The biggest government departments are potentially lucrative, targets for organised cyber-criminals. Only truly scalable systems can span pan-government operations with a level of centralised control and instant deployment of security updates that can respond to the sheer volume of threats and vulnerabilities faced by the PSN of the future.

It is the case, however, that the success of the PSN’s security is reliant on how its policies and guidelines are interpreted.

The PSN operates at a default security level categorised as business impact level 2 (IL2).

PSN Service Providers, therefore, have to achieve appropriate accreditation in order to

supply PSN services. Whilst the accreditation process is thorough, it is only applicable in the context of the original risk assessment.

A solution, for example, can be accredited right down to the level of a small department, but such a solution is not necessarily going to dynamically and ultimately economically scale to cover an organisation as large and as high profile as the Department of Works and Pensions, with the same risk profile.

EMBRACE THE SPIRIT OF PSN, NOT JUST THE LETTER Public sector organisations, suppliers and even the accrediting bodies must recognise that IL2 or IL3 accreditation is just a baseline.

All parties must aspire to exceed tick-box compliance, evaluating how their systems will interoperate in practice and the level of

by the adoption of scalable, multi-tenanted systems. Most importantly, the vast majority of the financial savings the PSN will deliver from services comes directly from scalable solutions that ease ICT management; such as common user management portals that can encompass multiple government operations.

In the longer term, the PSN aim of achieving commodity ICT costs can only happen if suppliers rise to the challenge to deliver secure services on a truly pan-governmental level, from day one; this is the vision of our PSN CTO. BUILDING FOR THE GREATER GOOD PSN security relies on a two-way commitment.

For example, in designing mobile services there is an obligation to recognise the wider requirements of a secure PSN; that they must serve the largest of organisations as

The PSN has a number of critical success factors that must be fulfilled for the vision to become a reality, but none as fundamental as security.

Security is the single most important enabler in the adoption of PSN services. trust they will offer to partner organisations.

End-user organisations, and suppliers, developing PSN systems must take a candid view of their decision-making processes. Many are not asking themselves, or their partners, the right questions. Too many are simply focused on compliance, short-sightedly implementing the letter of the PSN law as opposed to its spirit.

The ‘islands of security’ that may result from this approach surely are not in the interest of the mainstream PSN. Islands of security will create anxieties on the PSN ‘mainland’ as secure data sharing cannot exist between islands – a hopscotch archipelago – in a sea of vulnerabilities. Rather, save the notion of islands for organisations handling extremely sensitive data (IL4 and above), who actually benefit from the isolation.

The reality is that true portability and mobility across the PSN can only be achieved

well as the smallest. By building PSN ICT systems that scale, smaller organisations are not only aiding their larger government partners, but also helping themselves by earning trust on the PSN ‘mainland’.

There is little doubt that adoption of the PSN will be a journey, but it is one that needs to be implemented thoughtfully to secure rich rewards for both public sector organisations and the citizens they serve. L

FURTHER INFORMATION Let us help you build your business case – call 0800 158 5236 www.siemens-enterprise.com/UK/PSN

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

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A MARKETPLACE FOR DEVELOPING OPPORTUNITIES

Bob Lambert, Cassidian senior solution architect, outlines the company’s philosophy that given a well constructed architecture, like the one created for the PSN, it is perfectly feasible to commoditise the delivery of secure infrastructures.

The UK Government’s Public Services Network (PSN) programme will create a single logical network for the Public Sector, built from approved component services delivered by a range of assured service providers. Cassidian, part of the EADS group, is participating in the PSN transformation and has been formally selected as a supplier of services to the PSN programme.

Globally Cassidian is a leading provider of secure ICT to many Governments with worldclass security products, Network Operating Centres, managing both voice and data, in land, sea and air environments. Specifically for PSN, Cassidian is a leader in system integration, secure communication services and information systems to both the defence and the civil sectors and is therefore wellpositioned to deliver outstanding network solutions to the public sector. Most recently Cassidian demonstrated great agility and customer responsiveness in supporting the well publicised uplift of military personnel drafted in to serve the Olympics, Cassidian rapidly delivered a secure network communications environment to allow those personnel to continue to work seamlessly.

STANDARDS BASED SOLUTIONS Cassidian has been delivering standards based service solutions from fixed-price catalogues for over twenty years, and has seen the bilateral benefits. Customers have benefitted from rapid procurement and delivery of fully interoperable and secure solutions at published, benchmarked prices.

At the same time the streamlined catalogue procurement process has allowed Cassidian to keep design and sales overhead costs to a minimum. PSN gives Cassidian the opportunity to deliver these services through a more widely available catalogue, and means that we can extend and share these benefits with a far wider range of Government customers.

PSN will provide the assurance and reliability of a single supplier in a multivendor environment for E2E services. The core of the PSN is a set of open technical, service and governance standards. These allow the procurement of services from

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GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

multiple vendors, with assurance that they will interoperate correctly to deliver a coherent end-to-end solution. Information can now be easily shared across different Government organisations, regardless of which supplier a procuring organisation selects. For the supplier, the benefit is that the solution can be designed once to meet the common standards, then sold to many organisations.

The PSN programme will develop a market

and Services. Cassidian’s core UK business has been in the provision of secure infrastructures, and disagrees with the widely held belief that catalogue-based procurement does not work well for secure solutions. Cassidian believes that given a well constructed architecture, like the one created for the PSN, it is perfectly feasible to commoditise the delivery of secure infrastructures. There may be a degree of customisation and integration typically representing at most 20 per cent of the solution, with the 80 per cent majority of the solution constructed from common catalogue services.

BENEFITS To fully realise the benefits that PSN offers, Cassidian has invested significantly in the portfolio of services. Cassidian’s priority is focused on affordable easy to buy solutions with flexibility in transition, offering services that provide a platform for business innovation. Secure Remote Access, for example, will enable PSN users to work away from the office.

Cassidian now aims to be at the forefront of providing Government with world-class services, delivered in a secure, agile and affordable manner. Through the PSN strategy the UK

Cassidian’s core business has been in the provision of secure infrastructures, and disagrees with the belief that catalogue-based procurement does not work well for secure solutions

place providing opportunities for industry, and savings for the Public Sector. The PSN marketplace enables the procurement of services from approved suppliers advertising their services in a single portal. This has benefits for both the supplier and the purchaser – suppliers only need to maintain one set of service descriptions in one location; purchasers can quickly search for the service they want, and can easily compare services from multiple vendors. Suppliers compete once to be on the catalogue, but thereafter the streamlined PSN procurement process is used. Through this PSN strategy the UK government expects to benefit from reduced costs for the delivered services, reduced contracting and commercial management costs, lower change management costs, and rapid introduction of services.

Cassidian quickly realised the route to market was changing. All central Government departments will now be buying telecommunications services through two PSN frameworks: Connectivity (WAN + LAN)

government will benefit from reduced costs for the delivered services, reduced commercial costs and rapid introduction of services.

Cassidian has over twenty years’ experience of delivering catalogue services to the Government and has grasped the PSN opportunity with both hands, invested in new services, and will deliver significant value for customers. The situation with PSN is that rarest of animals - a strong win-win for government and industry.

Cassidian, an EADS company, is a worldwide leader in global security solutions and systems, providing Lead Systems Integration and value-added products and services to civil and military customers around the globe: In 2011, Cassidian – with around 28,000 employees – achieved revenues of 5.8 billion Euro. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.cassidian.com

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END-TO-END SERVICE DELIVERY FROM ABTECH-UK

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Abtech-UK is agnostic to any vendor which gives the benefit of being impartial and thus able to focus on recommending the best solution for a particular customer Abtech-UK is agnostic to any vendor which gives the benefit of being impartial and thus able to focus on recommending the best solution for a particular customer.

Our range includes Hitachi data Systems, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Fujitsu, Nimble and Qnap, Panologic, IGEL, VMware, RedHat, Citrix, Linux, Microsoft, VMware and Cloud services.

As accredited partners to all our vendors Abtech-UK are able to fully utilise their technical expertise on that particular platform.

SUPPORT Abtech-UK is able to offer 24/7/365 support services from call logging to providing on line support by qualified staff focussing on fixing a problem on-line. These services are tailored to each client as the requirement can vary greatly from customer to customer. Daily, weekly as well as monthly reports are produced and discussed at the regular review meetings. SLA’s with KPI’s are agreed and form the basis for measuring the success, however Abtech-UK recognise businesses change so are completely flexible should the customer wish to amend these. Field as well as on site staff can also be provided. Our success is in providing the service you require and suits your business.

PRO-ACTIVE Management monitoring tools can be implemented so that you can set thresholds that suit your business and enable you to make changes before a problem occurs. Disk capacity thresholds, heat, memory and networking cards. The traffic light warning signals can be set to alert key staff by email, SMS, text and tie the actions into the support contract to ensure your critical systems are always up and running and accessible to your users.

SEAMLESS INTEGRATION Abtech-UK is very used to working with customers own IT staff and would look to appoint an account manager and introduce staff that have the correct technical skills and customer facing skills that would integrate seamlessly into the customer’s team.

Abtech-UK provides an on-going solutions management service which regularly reviews the technology performance within the

customer’s environment, addresses any current or on-going issues and manages those through to successful conclusions, whilst maintaining analytical reports on many aspects e.g. Cost savings actually realised, resource demands, growth and development requirements to name but a few.

OPEN APPROACH Abtech-UK‘s open approach to this end-toend service delivery is key to our capability of delivering the very best overall solution.

Abtech-UK will respond immediately and efficiently to your requirements and ensure that you feel Abtech-UK’s team are really integral to your own team.

Using project management tools and adhering to ITIL standards all parties can monitor review and ensure that services are being delivered within the agreed Service Level Agreements (SLA).

Abtech-UK looks to establish professional long term relationship who fully understand your aims and objectives as well as your technology and infrastructure, therefore providing the ability to ensure the best service and advice is maintained.

If customers choose to partner with a particular vendor directly for their long term data management, then they could not guarantee that they would always receive the best advice on modern technologies and strategies as they would simply receive the information pertaining to a single vendor’s solution where better solutions may well exist.

This is where Abtech-UK seeks to add strength and reliability to a long term relationship as we make the customer our number one priority and guarantee that we will always consider every technology and solution available and provide multiple options with the pros and cons of each for the customer to consider.

FUTURE Abtech-UK fully support you going forward and the regular customer review meetings would ensure that as your business grows and the challenges that it faces inevitably change, Abtech-UK are ready to deal with those changes in an efficient and appropriate manner to ensure that the service provision is never compromised and that both the installed technology and new developments in the industry as a whole are able to be utilised to the best effect within your IT Infrastructure.

In the current economic climate a number of customers are looking to sweat their assets out for a few years longer rather than facing a huge IT refresh spend. Abtech-UK can support equipment passed the vendors end of life period.

Abtech-UK is committed to regular skills and training update schedules and is always updating our field of knowledge on the latest technology developments.

Remaining an Independent Solutions Provider, Abtech-UK will always be there to provide the insight and knowledge needed to exploit the latest developments and sweat assets where this is required.

FINANCE Abtech-UK can offer flexible finance options including tax efficient leasing packages that suit and help spread the cost of IT and move you away from the cycles of single high capital budget spend every few years.

(Services and support can be included) L FURTHER INFORMATION www.abtech-uk.com 0845 456 2393 mketteridge@abtech-uk.com

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IT Events

sponsored by

IT AND COMPUTING FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR – www.governmenttechnology.co.uk

IT EVENTS Public Services Network Summit 12 September 2012 QEII Conference Centre, Westminster How will PSN facilitate easier shared service arrangements, flexible working, reduced office accommodation and greater efficiencies in costs of services? The PSN Summit - ‘From Vision to Reality’ will form part of a series of events being organised by the Cabinet Office. It will attract circa 200 senior figures from central & local government, NHS, blue light services and the third sector to hear presentations from the Cabinet Office, the Local CIO Council, Government Procurement Service and industry experts from PSNGB and other specialists. networksummit2012.publicsectorconnect.org Service Management Expo 18-19 September 2012 Birmingham NEC Service Management Expo (SME) is Europe’s only dedicated event for the field service market and is attended by professionals across service management, logistics, fleet management, operations and IT. Meet over 100 leading suppliers to the service management industry under one roof. The Service Management Expo Conference focuses on driving team efficiency, looking at best ways to deliver high value, low cost service with one eye on the future of service management. www.servicemanagement.co.uk

Call Centre & Customer Management Expo 2-3 October 2012 National Hall, London Olympia Call Centre & Customer Management Expo offers ideas for low-cost technology implementations and people practices that can help reduce costs, while maintaining or boosting citizen satisfaction. The Call Centre Focus Conference, which runs alongside the exhibition, offers high-level strategic sessions, which showcase learning experiences to inspire the very best ideas and forward-thinking conversations. www.callcentre.co.uk Think G-Cloud 18 October 2012 Business Design Centre, Islington, London The Think G-Cloud 2012 agenda aims to reflect the dynamism of its subject matter. Running in the morning and afternoon will be interactive breakout seminars, allowing for an opportunity to better discuss key areas of policy with leading decision makers and peers. This will provide delegates with an excellent understanding of the benefits and excitement surrounding this massive change in public sector ICT procurement. 30 leading and specialised service providers will be available throughout the day to discuss with you how their products and services can help you with your issues and challenges. thinkgcloud2012.co.uk

itSMF Conference 5-6 November 2012 Novotel London West, Hammersmith The IT Service Management Forum provides an accessible network of industry experts, information sources and events to assist in addressing IT service management issues.

There will be a sense of celebration in the air at this year’s conference & exhibition, as itSMF marks its 21st birthday. Returning to the Novotel London West on November 5 and 6, the event combines a programme of more than 40 educational sessions with a bustling exhibition and a new-look annual awards dinner. www.itsmf.co.uk/Conference2012 ICT for Sustainability 13 November 2012 QEII Conference Centre, London ICT for Sustainability is the new name for Green IT Expo - the UK’s leading forum for using ICT and communications technologies to accelerate the responsible business agenda. The event provides a one-stop-shop for senior decisionmakers to identify environmentally-friendly technologies, green innovations and socially responsible suppliers that can help them rise to these new challenges. Entry is free-of-charge for ICT, business and sustainability decisionmakers – providing access to a wealth of new research, industry insights and case studies. www.greenitexpo.com

PageOne’s national paging network offers real-time messaging and alerts to individuals and groups, providing a powerful low cost broadcast messaging capability. Independent of mobile networks and with no per-message costs, paging is ideal for operational alerts, enabling mass dissemination of information.

The Responder 2-way device provides delivery confirmation, reply, SOS capability and location features ideal for efficiently mobilising field-based staff.

Get in touch to find out what mobile technology can do for your world.

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enquiries@pageone.co.uk

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Secure Data Destruction

We Leave No Trace

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Security is our foremost priority and therefore our services focus on ensuring that there is no opportunity for data escape. CCL collect material using our own security vetted employees and satellite tracked vehicles. We process all collected material at our licensed premises and offer full asset tracking to give complete peace of mind. CCL provide certified data erasure to CESG standards using our own fully trained technicians and also provide a complete physical destruction service by shredding.

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