17 minute read
06. OUR WORK DEMONSTRATES OUR DEDICATION
by MITA
The myriad of diverse project engagements throughout 2019 demonstrate the capability and commitment of MITA’s employees to actively adapt to new practices and technologies. Our engagements show our collective mixture of skills, abilities and expertise to design solutions and services for Public Administration to enable the delivery of high quality services. Our dedicated team of professionals brings an informed perspective to drive initiatives that enable our client to attain their IT based strategic commitments.
06.1 Workflow Automation
One of the main areas of work in 2019, focused on the replacement of the old eForms solution with a modern platform that will enable MITA and the Government of Malta to address its eServices and Workflow requirements for the coming years ahead. Work on the new Workflow Automation Solution commenced in 2018 were the programme collectively focused on the research and acquisition of the solution. The implementation, testing and acceptance, training and go-live occurred in 2019. The solution, which is funded under the CONvErGE ERDF programme, was launched in August 2019 and is already hosting a number of eServices. The use of this solution is expected to increase since new eServices are being built on this platform and others are being migrated onto it. The Workflow Automation Solution was the first major solution to be hosted on MITA’s Hybrid Cloud.
In September 2019, MITA was invited by the solution provider to attend the product European Partner Summit. During the proceeding, MITA together with the solution provider, presented a case study about the project’s implementation. Toward the end of the event, MITA together with the supplier, was presented the distinguished ‘Most Exciting New Customer’ award. This was awarded on the basis that the MITA project is currently the only solution based project that cuts horizontally across an entire Government. Furthermore, for the first time, the solution was used intelligently as an enabler and creation tool for the myriad of candidate Government eServices. Additionally, it was used to automate and facilitate other processes to present an outstanding user experience to MITA clients.
06.2 EU Workshop on Enterprise and IT Risk Management in Tax Administrations
The Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) promotes IT Collaboration among European Tax Administrations in Member States and Candidate Countries, to share their knowledge and actively work together on this challenge. In November 2019, MITA and the Ministry for Finance hosted a workshop, funded by the EU Commission, on ERM and ITRM in Tax Administrations. In total, 52 representatives from 22 European Tax Administrations and consultants within the European Commission participated in this workshop, which was supported by DG TAXUD. This workshop was aimed at managers and experts involved and responsible for ERM, ITRM and IT Security in the Taxation domain. It gave participants the opportunity to share such knowledge and good practices amongst them. Moreover, the participants identified several opportunities for further collaboration to improve their IT risk management processes.
06.3 Modernisation of the Justice Solution
The Justice IT systems are currently passing through a modernisation process to make them more accessible and more user-friendly. MITA is playing an important role to ensure added value to the Courts, legal professionals and the citizens. MITA is developing a new IT system introducing new improved security features and additional benefits such as:
To simplify the interface between Government, citizens and the business community and the provision of faster and simpler services; Reengineering of the technology stack to make it amenable to sharing of data and through this providing a framework for the implementation of the next generation of Courts eServices; Reengineering of the Courts Case Management module to align it to the new technology stack, make it database agnostic and shift away from a dated development technology; Deliver several new eServices including a Responsive Web Application for both Citizens and Legal Professionals and additional digital services; The new IT System will be accessible from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Another important function of the Malta Justice IT systems for the future is their interconnectivity with other Justice systems across the EU through the European e-Justice portal. This will enable citizens and the legal profession to access information such as European Small Claims, European Payment Orders, searching for insolvencies and judgements search through a common identifier, namely the European Case Law Identifier.
IT systems are an essential tool to modernise the judicial system that can create both opportunities and challenges. To achieve this MITA together with Courts and CIO office are working collaboratively to improve the existing IT systems with the possibility of introducing new IT supported functions in other Justice business areas.
06.4 Legacy Systems Modernisation
Government is currently investing in the modernisation of legacy systems originally deployed in the early 2000’s. These legacy systems are complex monoliths that grew over time to an extent where business agility is being lost due to the time and effort required for maintenance.
A typical example of a monolithic system being modernised by MITA is the taxation/VAT online portal. Through these systems, taxpayers and/or tax representatives can interact with the Commissioner for Revenue to fulfil certain tax obligations. These systems now over 20 years old have become monoliths that package a wide range of services for individuals, companies, employers, VAT payers etc. in two large applications. At face value this may seem appropriate, however under the hood, the current implementation places dependencies between services that are independent of each other. This means that agility is lost in planning and implementing enhancements to the different services. Not to mention the fact that these systems also tightly couple user interface, business and data concerns.
To address this unsustainable state of affairs, Government invested in a brand new, cloud based infrastructure on top of which the next generation of systems will be developed and deployed. This mammoth undertaking is looking at existing systems as well as business vision to give birth to a new breed of systems based on modern architectural styles.
The simplest way to avoid tightly coupled code is to weave in more interdependence between modules. Coupling can be defined as the measure of effort to separate a logical module from its reliance on another. A Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the first step in decoupling business logic concerns from UI and data access concerns. Taking this a step further, Microservices architecture sub-divides the various business concerns in separate suites of modular services. Each module will be written to support a specific business objective and written in a simple way to communicate with other sets of services.
Although developers need to deal with the additional complexity of creating a distributed system, microservices ensure better organisation within the development environment, improved performance and deployment of services. Such an architecture enables an organisation to develop effort around multiple teams; each responsible for one or more single service. This enhances agility to deploy and scale services independently of all other teams.
It is important to point out that due to its distributed and de-coupled services, such an architecture can impede teams to understand the solution’s bigger picture. Perhaps a solution to this is, as highlighted earlier on, improved communication in between roles and stakeholders. On the outset, software architecture represents a blueprint; or a common abstraction of a system that most of its stakeholders can use as the root for mutual understanding, negotiation, consensus, and communication.
So taking on the same example of the Taxation Online systems. Each service/component/ module will now be defined as a separate loosely coupled service depending on the requirement, which may collaborate with each other based on the scenario. Examples of these services/components/modules could be: authorisation, payments processing, tax return processing, taxpayer registration, so on and so forth.
Some taxation systems have already moved to a SOA and are already reaping the benefits. The next stage is to continue the transition to a proper Microservice architecture that leverages the benefits of Government’s investment in the hybrid-cloud infrastructure. This is software engineering work at its best.
Reality is that no one size fits all. There are many different types of architectures that one can ponder over; all having their pros and cons. So, the microservice architecture might not fit all Government systems, it mostly depends on the different scenarios’ or projects’ requirements; and which trade-offs one is comfortable choosing. This is precisely what MITA is doing at present throughout this exciting modernisation journey.
06.5 Modern Workplace Initiative
The Licensing Management Unit is making headway and leading with a major change in both business operations as well as shifting a cultural change at MITA and government through the implementation of the Modern Workplace Initiative, which was established as part of the National Digital Strategy.
A high-level discussion, which included higher management officials, was held to undertake a shift in the licensing model that was present and adopted through Government at the time. This change entailed moving away from a one-time cost perpetual model to a Subscription based model, also known as Software as a Service (SaaS). ICT operations are rapidly moving away from the old in-house server models and perpetual licensing to virtual and more responsive Cloud Services and software through consumption and on demand.
While this nouvelle idea may seem just in the way costs for software licensing are made it has far reaching implications. The change to SaaS serves several objectives in line with the National Digital Strategy which can be summed up as having the ambition of ‘Empowering Government Employees through a Digital Workplace.’ The strategy, as set by the Modernization Initiative will ensure that all Government Employees are located on the same platform, streamlining technology and licensing to all government work force in terms of operations (such as Microsoft Office 365).
Achieving this transition to one central unified platform will bring many direct and indirect advantages. One key benefit for this will be to facilitate faster updates and reduce required technical support on outdated systems. Additionally, the modern tools offered by having the latest software across the board allows for greater depth of use, access, scalability through devices and mobility, which is a pre-requisite in today’s day and age. This radical change would ensure that adoptions are in line with shifts in the ICT industry as well as Government’s outlook on the digital Sphere, which is ambitious and goes beyond Workplace Digitization. At its core and through the initiative, in line with empowerment through modernization the following benefits become palpable:
Work anywhere; Anytime; On any device in a secure manner.
With the onset of Cloud based computing and SaaS, security has been a main concern. Malta has invested in a nation-wide Cyber Security Initiative, as part of the National Digital Strategy. The Modern Workplace Initiative complements this strategic driver, in as much as the SaaS warrants added encryption and security, which in many cases is shifted to the supplier of the software license and gives an added level of security to users, entities and ultimately Government.
The first milestone for Workplace Modernization will be attained when all government users have changed to new 365 platform, which has a target date of end of year 2020. Achieving this will set the foundation by which MITA and Government can be better equipped and connected to then cease and capitalize on future coming technologies such as Cloud Computing and later, Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT’s) which would cement the titular moniker of “Blockchain Island”. MITA is proud to have been in a key instrumental position to assist and guide contractually as well as financially with Microsoft and other departments, to have facilitated this initiative, and through it helped deliver on its remit within the National Digital Strategy as a whole.
06.6 Refreshing Network technologies
2019 saw the completion of the MAlta Government NETwork (MAGNET) sites technology refresh project. All the routers that reached their end-of-life were replaced with firewalls to improve the network security posture within these sites. As a result, 600 firewalls were installed within these Government sites.
CIO Offices were delegated access rights to the network management tool through which an inventory of all Local Area Network (LAN) switches within the CIO’s respective Ministry network can be viewed. This enables them to monitor the health status of each network device and other network management information.
In addition, MITA was also involved in providing consultancy and facilitated the implemention of a revamped network infrastructure at St. Vincent De Paul Long Term Care Facility and at the Courts of Justice buildings. We assisted the Ministry for Health in identifying the network equipment required to plan the implement a network infrastructure technology refresh at Mater Dei Hospital.
Two framework agreements were drafted to enable CIOs to procure network and LAN equipment. This will facilitate the procurement cycle and benefit from a more advantageous pricing.
Enhancements were also carried out on the MITA Data Centre infrastructure, at both Sta. Venera and Mater Dei sites, in order to keep the network current and constantly updated in the face of the increased sophistication of network security threats. The exercise covered also a review of firewall policies, the patch management cycle, the implementation of new security features within core elements of the infrastructure and the decommissioning of end of support devices.
06.7 Network Operations Centre
At the heart of MITA operations is the Network Operations Centre (NOC). Staff aided by IT monitoring tools and management structures, keep a watchful eye over engaged Government IT services whilst resolving issues and proactively employing preventive steps to reduce future occurrences. Such force is a drive forward to ensure 24x7x365 uptime availability of services for all stakeholders involved.
MITA NOC handles approximately 1,000 alerts daily. Prompt escalation and resolution (where necessary) is critical and is mainly achieved through established procedures which seek to maintain turnaround times within the levels stipulated in the various SLAs. Keeping a track record of these alerts as well as logging in their details using a Service Management Tool is part of NOC’s daily routine. This central inventory of alerts serves not only as a compilation of known incidents, but also assists in building NOC’s intelligence for the resolution of similar incidents in the future.
Ongoing dynamic IT emerging technologies has been a constant driver for NOC’s maturity evolution. Optimization and effectiveness of intelligent monitoring tools is key in ensuring that NOC remains vigilant and in control whilst handling the large amount of incidents occurring every month. Collecting and reviewing performance reports from various systems and reporting trends in performance assist in documenting whilst predicting future bottlenecks, issues or outages.
Whilst constant value is derived through uncompromised service availability, NOC’s input to the Agency is also gauged through a magnitude of supporting roles. MITA NOC resources embrace Data Centre Availability whilst simultaneously applying 24x7 support operation, handling hardware and virtual processes. Complementing processes include backup and storage management in line with the General Data Protection Regulation.
Embracing new technologies as well as ensuring that personnel are receptive to continual advancement in handling incident management and risk planning are crucial to NOC survival now and in the future.
Throughout 2019, MITA proceeded with the implementation of the National Cyber Security Awareness and Education Campaign which was launched in October 2018. This is being undertaken under the direction of the National Cyber Security Strategy Steering Committee.
This year’s flagship activities included the launch of the B Secure Scheme and the Malta Cyber Security Summit.
The B-Secure scheme aimed to promote and strengthen cyber security preparedness in the private sector was announced by Hon. Silvio Schembri on 13th June 2019 during an event held at the Chamber of Commerce.
Through the B Secure Scheme, the private industry had the opportunity to apply for assistance in assessing the posture of their digital assets against the latest cyber security threats and also to further the education of their employees through training being offered, giving participants the possibility to earn certifications recognised world-wide in the cyber security domain.
The Cyber Security Summit 2019 is the first ever summit of its kind organised by Cyber Security Malta in collaboration with the Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, MITA, the Malta Chamber Of Commerce Enterprise & Industry and Tech.mt. This one-day summit, held on the 23rd October 2019, aimed to further educate the local professionals and executives about cyber security.
06.9
Email - Prime Channel for Business Communication
Email remains one of the most powerful tools for timely and cost-effective communication with global reach. This also applies for the Maltese Government and related stakeholders. For this purpose, one of the main responsibilities of the MITA Email Services Team is to ensure that this service and related activities are delivered within agreed levels.
2019 saw the deployment of an upgraded email infrastructure, providing a platform that is designed to help meet the need for robust security, reliability, and user productivity. Given the importance associated with the Government Email Service, consideration was given to ensure that design of the architecture includes the required level of contingency. This extends from the hardware level up to the logical configurations at application and network levels.
MITA continued its “GREEN” journey by achieving the Environment Award for Industry 2019 for “Sustainable Development”. The award was received during the 10th edition of the Environment Award for Industry 2019 organised by the Cleaner Technology Centre. This award continues to demonstrate MITA’s tangible commitment towards effective Environmental Sustainability.
Throughout the past years, MITA has adopted a cleaner and a more efficient practice to its corporate-wide operations to conserve energy and natural resources, as well as initiatives that reduce negative impacts on the environment.
These initiatives cover a correct waste management system, the utilization of solar energy to create power for its operations, the reduction in transport emissions and the introduction to the agency of competent figures to maintain and monitor the environment, as required by law and international standards.
MITA is proud of its environmental achievements and is committed to the challenge of continually improving and reducing its environmental impact.
06.11 Hybrid Cloud Platform - MCA Award 2019
The Government, through MITA, has recently procured a Hybrid Cloud Platform via an open tender, the largest single investment made by MITA of approximately €15 million over seven (7) years. Through the Hybrid Cloud Platform Government shall be able to consistently run applications from both within MITA’s datacentres (on-premises) and Public Cloud which is located at datacentres (off-premises) within the European Union.
Government, now, has the flexibility to choose the right combination of off-premises and on-premises deployment models to meet the business and technical requirements for its solutions. For instance, applications that run on-premises can move off-premises and vice versa without requiring major re-design. System developers will have at their disposal tools that are only available within the cloud which go much beyond the traditional virtualization technology. For instance, Government systems can make use of Virtual Machine Scale Sets on-premise that enable rapid deployments with automatic scaling options for modern workloads. This means, that if a service
is under heavy usage, the cloud platform will automatically add more resources to the solution. As a result, it can cope with the load and remove the extra resources once the load has reduced.
We have started the transition from the traditional computing model to a more efficient, agile, reliable, secure and cost-effective cloud computing model. We have invested in one of the best hybrid cloud platforms, which coupled with the modernization initiative of its services will become the backbone for most services the Maltese citizens will be making use of in the coming years.
MITA is proud and honoured to take home the “Excellence, Innovation and Leadership in Information Security” award for our Hybrid Cloud for Government. The Award was presented during the 9th edition of the MCA eBusiness Awards.
06.12 Commitment to Support National Events
MITA is proud to have continued to support Government in providing ICT technical and infrastructural requirements necessary to host national events. During 2019, MITA configured and supported all the necessary wired / wireless network infrastructure setup throughout the following three events, support both the meeting attendees as well as members of the media present for the event:
Southern EU Countries Summit – Malta (Jun 2019) Malta Ministerial Meeting on Migration (Sep 2019) South EU Telecoms Ministers Summit – Malta (Oct 2019)
