Open Source Software and the Government’s ICT Strategy 2 nd June 2014
Need for Government ICT Strategy ICT prior to last election... –Big, complicated and risky IT projects, dominated by a few suppliers. –Too much bespoke development, and wasteful duplication of effort. –Systems not interoperable or integrated. –Long delivery timescales, so long that responsibilities and organisation changed before implementation. Published pan-Government strategy March 2011
Aims of Government ICT Strategy Reduce waste –use more open and standardised and hence more competitive solutions Common infrastructure and procurement Drive for public services to be delivered digitally. Pan-government governance.
How this is impacting the Public Sector Regional PSN Networks (Local Gov/Blue light) –(e.g. Staffs, West Mids) Migration of key government services –JANET 6 (Education) –N4 (Health) –Replacement of ASPIRE contract (HMRC) –Replacement of Grapevine contract (MOD)
Reducing Waste Avoid commissioning bespoke projects, and use open source software where possible. Develop open source skills in-house, rather than be dependent upon big companies. Drive towards smaller, more agile suppliers to create a more competitive marketplace.
Common ICT Infrastructure Mandate open platforms Adopt a flexible and standardised approach, examples –PSN –G-Cloud Ensure interoperability between platforms. Enable better resource consolidation.
Open Source Examples Linux (Operating System) Moodle and Mahara (LMS and e-portfolio) Open Office Wordpress (web authoring) Asterisk (VoIP/SIP) Sugar CRM Shibboleth (Federated Access Management)