One of the aspirations articulated in the Government ICT strategy is that “Government will work with countries across the world to learn from, share and reuse the best solutions and standards”. This reminds me that I did intend to post more worldwide customer examples of innovative and efficient use of ICT by public sector organisations.
The Swedish Red Cross (SRC), the largest humanitarian voluntary organisation in Sweden, has chosen to adopt Microsoft’s cloud offering, Microsoft Online Services, due to two important considerations: cost reduction and the need for reliable and up-to-date communication.
For any organisation moving to cloud services an important consideration is the cost of the transition and whether it makes financial sense in the long run. In the case of SRC, any cost savings will allow the organisation to spend more on its humanitarian cause rather than on IT.
SRC employees are benefiting from the integrated system where they can switch from their PC, laptop or mobile phone and have all the information at their fingertips. Since the launch web mail and instant messaging has gone up by 50% in the organisation, showing the greater ease with which employees can communicate.
You can read more about the Swedish Red Cross cloud implementation here.
Posted by Ian
I do not normally re-post previous blog postings but, for some reason, this one did not seem to get properly syndicated so I am issuing this reminder to register for a very worthwhile day for public sector customers seeking to reduce their ICT operating costs and improve ICT infrastructure efficiency. The ‘Best of Microsoft Management Summit 2011’ briefing on Tuesday May 3rd in London is genuinely almost full so please do register quickly if you are interested in attending.
Best of MMS UK 2011 will provide the best possible opportunity to learn about the latest IT Management products, solutions and technologies from Microsoft and how to apply them in your organisation. With a number of significant management product releases and announcements planned from Microsoft in the coming year, including some early Beta releases, this is an opportunity not to be missed.
This 1-day event will provide you with an understanding of the latest technical updates on Desktop, Datacenter and Cloud management features and solutions from Microsoft. The event will share more expert knowledge and information than ever, covering current and upcoming System Center releases System Center Configuration Manager 2012, System Center Operations Manager 2012, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and System Center Service Manager R2. There will also be significant coverage of Opalis Integration Server as well as the System Center Data Protection Manager products and solutions.
For more information and to register to attend please visit the Best of MMS 2011 website
The Citizen Service Platform (CSP) is Microsoft’s strategy to help local authorities and government agencies to reduce costs and be more efficient and responsive to individuals.
Microsoft is holding two showcase events with practical examples for our customers and partners to demonstrate how ICT is being used innovatively to transform the way local authorities and government agencies engage with citizens and deliver more effective and responsive public services at lower cost. Our ‘Innovate, Save, Engage’ Citizen Service Platform showcase events are being held in London on Tuesday May 10th 2011 and Leeds on Tuesday May 17th 2011.
The sessions at these CSP events will include:
You can find out more about these CSP events and register to attend here:
London – 10th May 2011
Register online here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032483586&Culture=en-GB
Register by phone here: 0870 166 6670 ref – 3586
Leeds – 17th May 2011
Register online here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032483588&Culture=en-GB
Register by phone here: 0870 166 6670 ref – 3588
Posted by Jason
Unlocking information to open up government and make it more accessible to citizens is an initiative that is rapidly gaining momentum. http://data.gov.uk is where to got to see how quickly software developers and individual citizens are making innovative use of the increasing volume of public sector datasets to produce a fascinating selection of free apps.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) publish an RSS feed of the Travel Advisory service – a data stream of important content on all of the locations that the UK Government has presence, with data ranging from what to do if your passport is lost/stolen through to up to date advice for travellers based on local conditions (extreme weather, civil unrest, significant local events etc).
Microsoft contacted one of our partners – AWS, to help take that data and publish it in the cloud as an open data API that enables any developer on any platform to consume and make use of it. AWS then worked with GapYear.com to deliver a mobile application that would combine their socially connected services, with this authoritative information from the FCO to deliver a location aware, resource for travellers.
The Travel Advisor application is now available as a free download in the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Hosting datasets in the cloud is a trend that is set to grow as, in addition to this example with the FCO, Transport for London has also chosen the Windows Azure Cloud platform to host travel datasets. The Developers' Area contains TfL's data feeds and allows developers to create applications for mobile and other devices for use by the public. Feeds available include information on the location of cycle hire docking stations, timetable data and real time traffic and roadworks information along the entire TfL transport network in and around London.
I posted an entry recently about West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and their innovative use of SharePoint as a digital hub for collaboration. They have also been busy unifying their communications strategy to improve communications and collaboration. Darren Stone from the Fire Service will be on the panel of a live webcast Microsoft has been working on with The Register.
On the 21st March at 11am you can hear from Darren, Dale Vile from Freeform Dynamics and Steve Tassell from Microsoft.
All you need to do to take part in the webcast is to register here:
http://whitepapers.theregister.co.uk/d/79f/6b37b/2aa/f3ce050d?td=m-ev
(If you can't make the live broadcast on March 21st, register now anyway and we'll let you know when the recorded version is available)
Posted by Dan
We would like to give you the opportunity to invite you to attend The Best of Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) UK 2011 on Tuesday 3 May at Microsoft’s Customer Centre in London.
The Microsoft IT environment is probably one of the most complicated and rapidly changing environments you will find. Dealing with 190,000 plus users, all with their own administration rights is a challenge in itself. When you add the extra complexity of rolling out a new operating system you quickly realise that IT operations isn’t for the faint hearted.
Our corporate IT team are on the leading edge of deploying Microsoft technology to our own in-house users. They successfully rolled out Windows 7 to 84,000 clients within 2 months of the release. That’s 1400 users deployed per day! They also have a role of documenting the processes and experiences, and publishing them for our customers to learn from.
The story of how Microsoft deployed Windows 7 internally is online now, and here are some of the nuggets:
Also, do remember that Microsoft and CESG have worked together on a collaborative project to produce a best practice framework for configuring Windows 7 for its use within UK Government, taking account of the increased threat and risk that a government department faces. This guidance is called the Government Assurance Pack (GAP) for Windows 7. The GAP provides a common starting point for departments or their system integrators to build a more secure workstation environment. The configuration is primarily aimed at central government departments however its guidance can be adapted to suit the range of threat scenarios faced across UK government. As the GAP uses the configuration of existing capabilities within Windows 7, it is fully supported by Microsoft.
As Government and their suppliers "reach for the cloud", it is clear that virtualisation & simplicity are vital components in its success and in driving down the costs for government. However, it has come to our attention that there seems to be some confusion on the suitability of Microsoft's Hyper-V for use by UK Government or their suppliers in the delivery of services for government. Microsoft would like to correct that confusion and address a number of questions that have been raised.
For clarity:
The Windows Server Hyper-V hypervisor is suitable for HM Government or their suppliers to utilise to virtualise multiple workloads onto a server or server farm at any common Impact Level and threat.
This will enable customers and service providers alike to maximise their utilisation of hardware, improve the resilience characteristics of many services in a cost efficient way and follow the recommendations of CESG's Good Practice Guide on Virtualisation.
Frequently asked questions:
Does Hyper-V need to be "accredited/approved/assessed" by CESG before I can use it to virtualise government services at a common level of risk and threat?
CESG's Good Practice Guide on Virtualisation states that hypervisors do not need to be assessed if you are virtualising servers at a common level of risk and threat (the Good Practice Guide for Virtualisation is available via your CESG Account Manager for government departments and their suppliers). At present no product is assessed to operate at differing levels of risk and threat. All systems virtualised and operating at multiple Impact levels and threats will need to be accredited for operation regardless of the status of individual products.
Is Hyper-V common criteria accredited?
Actually both Server 2008 and Hyper-V are Common Criteria certified to EAL4+ and have been since 2009. Hyper-V's security certificate is available here and its security target is here. We would always recommend customers review the security target and understand what security capabilities are actually evaluated and contribute to the Information Assurance of a solution, beyond the base claims of any manufacturer.
Is the "R2" version of Hyper-V evaluated?
Although Windows Server 2008R2, including Hyper-V, is in common criteria evaluation to EAL 4+ our understanding is that CESG's recommendation would be to use the latest software from Microsoft and keep it updated regardless of its evaluation status.
What Patterns/Templates are available to use in aiding the deployment of Hyper-V server for government use?
In addition to CESG's Good Practice Guide on Virtualisation, CESG are producing a number of "Architectural Patterns". These are non-product specific and in both cases cover a variety of deployment scenarios including operating at a common level of risk and threat as well as other specialised scenarios. For detailed security guidance on how to implement Microsoft's Enterprise Server products we understand that CESG's guidance is to utilise Microsoft's best practice, which is available here for Hyper-V .
I want my virtual servers to operate at multiple levels of threat and risk?
At present no product is assessed to be able to operate at multiple levels of threat and risk. However, in an enterprise environment it is both practical and operationally cost effective to create pools of servers that operate at a common level of the threat and risk and still recognise the benefits of increased hardware utilisation that decrease hardware footprints and maximise value.
What is Microsoft's relationship with CESG?
Microsoft has a long and successful partnership with CESG primarily through the Government Security Program, and ensures that CESG has the best knowledge available to be able provide pragmatic information assurance guidance to HM Government. A customer or partner seeking definitive Information Assurance guidance should approach CESG via their normal channels.
Who can I contact to discuss further?
If you are a government department or system integrator for a government department please contact CESG via your CESG account manager, or your Microsoft Account Manager, Partner Manager or Technical Specialist.
Posted by Nick
Over the last 12-18 months, we have made numerous postings here about Microsoft’s approach to cloud computing and examples of where public sector customers worldwide are already using the technology as an integral component of their ICT. As UK Public Sector organisations across the United Kingdom prepare themselves for the new budget reality that will fully take effect from April 6th, I thought it might be a useful exercise to draw together a summary of the numerous examples of where innovation in the application of ICT is improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public services – starting with cloud computing.
This posting provides a concise summary of where you can find more information on public sector organisations worldwide that are using Microsoft cloud computing to address challenges of scalability, agility and cost reduction.
Scalability of cloud computing
European Environment Agency
“This (cloud) technology gives people the power to understand their environment. They can look at the air quality in their gardens or the water quality at the beach where they want to swim. Armed with the facts, 600 million people in Europe can influence the environment in which they live.” Bert Jansen, Technology Lead, European Environment Agency
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
“Our original architecture supported 10,000 vessels, but the Windows Azure platform enables us to support hundreds of thousands or even millions of vessels, without any capital expenses. To scale the application, we will simply provision more computing capacity and add more message queues from the Windows Azure platform Web portal.” Richard Prodger, Technical Director, Active Web Solutions (Microsoft Partner)
Transport for London (TfL)
"TfL with the help of Microsoft, has created a strategic, scalable technical platform that will aid us in making real-time data sets available; the first of which is Trackernet data." Michael Gilbert, TfL's Director of Information Management
New York City
"Through our partnership with Microsoft, we've found ways to offer our employees Microsoft's newest, state-of-the-art computing tools while reducing costs to taxpayers. By capitalizing on the City's buying power, consolidating dozens of separate City agency license agreements into a single one, and paying for software based on use, we'll save $50 million over the next five years." Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City
State of California
“Technology strategies such as cloud computing are key to executing the mission of our office which is to strengthen IT project oversight, increase transparency in technology spending, increase cost savings and define specific targets to reduce energy usage. ” Teri Takai, CIO, State of California
US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
“This is really about increasing collaboration and communications across the breadth of 120,000 users in 5,000 offices across the country and 100 countries around the globe to better deliver on the USDA’s mission. For us a move to the cloud was a question of performance, service, and cost, and this solution will help us streamline our efforts and use taxpayer dollars efficiently.” Chris Smith, CIO, USDA
For a comprehensive overview of Microsoft’s cloud computing vision and products, visit our Cloud Power portal