Canadian Government Executive - Volume 21

November 2015 //

Canadian Government Executive /

proxy for the Internet’s growing

reach, the notion of the cloud

permeates our personal and

professional lives, driven by

streaming, storing, and sharing. A plethora

of cloud-based vendors now co-exists with

proprietary incumbents such as Micro-

soft that have also embraced the cloud, al-

beit on its own terms. Cisco’s “Internet of

Things” is, similarly, a proprietary variant

of the cloud, an enabler of widening con-

nectivity across people, devices and servers.

Email is the most basic form of cloud ser-

vice used continuously within and outside

of our organizational boundaries. Many

universities in Canada (including my own)

have abandoned their own proprietary

systems and embraced the cloud. The Uni-

versity of Alberta was first out of the gate,

partnering with Google, while Dalhousie

has since opted for Microsoft. Both reflect

the growing ubiquity of the cloud and the

futility of small organizations working to

develop and maintain their own systems.

Cloud sceptics immediately invoke privacy

concerns as data becomes dispersed globally

across a myriad of virtual servers. The issue

has been largely a red herring on the afore-

mentioned campuses, dealt with through

upfront transparency and user education,

and more protected file storage facilities for

truly sensitive materials. For large govern-

ments, such issues admittedly become more

complex — witness the ongoing struggles

of Shared Services Canada to implement a

common email solution federally.

Local governments, more akin to univer-

sities, face similar tensions and choices.

The City of Edmonton, for example, has

partnered with Google for email and oth-

er services, consistent with its pursuit of

open government in recent years. While

many urban governments remain cau-

tious, a widening range of proprietary and

open source cloud offerings will clearly

reshape tomorrow’s smart cities.

For smaller communities, there are both

opportunities and risks. The opportunities

stem from the cloud enabling a shared

infrastructure and services architecture

for local governments that has long been

called for, but thus far has yet to emerge.

Rather than a government-run entity of

in-house servers and solutions, however,

this heightened sharing would occur vir-

tually and often informally through com-

mon vendors and collaborative platforms.

As a case in point, rural entities in East-

ern Ontario have collectively forged a

“Road Map to Digital Leadership” (2015-

2024). The underlying broadband infra-

structure created through this effort is

a critical enabler for cloud and mobile

solutions going forward. The absence of

such infrastructure is a huge challenge

for many rural communities in Canada

and around the world. The CIO of Essex

County Council in the UK, for example,

has publicly commented that his govern-

ment is only 20 percent cloud enabled,

due to insufficient broadband coverage

not expected to be in place until 2017.

Yet these examples notwithstanding, lo-

cal governments in Great Britain of all siz-

es are making greater strides in seeking

virtual transformation for two reasons:

better support from above (i.e., a national

government more invested in the cloud

as well as local government renewal)

and more concerted efforts amongst local

players to spur awareness and action.

A good example of the latter is a recent

Cloudy Prospects for Small Town Government

As Canadian provinces refurbish their core operations,

a new approach to provincial-municipal relations may

well be warranted.

Governing Digitally

Jeffrey Roy

publication by the Local Government As-

sociation entitled: “Transforming local

public services: Using technology and digi-

tal tools and approaches.” The report pro-

files how, “in the back office, councils are

effectively utilising procurement frame-

works to secure the technology and digital

resources they require in newways.” Many

of these examples including email and a

variety of other tools and applications are

aligned, the report notes, with the national

government’s G-cloud framework.

As Canadianprovinces refurbish their core

operations, a new approach to provincial-

municipal relations may well be warranted.

Consider the future of electronic voting: last

year in Ontario, dozens of small towns and

rural dwellings negotiated their own (often

proprietary) separate arrangements with a

small set of companies. A shared cloud could

enhance both efficiency and security, while

integrating voting credentials with other

public and private services as countries such

as Estonia have done.

To quote British Cabinet Minister Fran-

cis Maude, the future of digital govern-

ment rests on a philosophy of “tight-loose”.

Accordingly, the challenge for public sec-

tor cloud solutions going forward will be

to apply this principle with creativity and

flexibility, enabling local innovation rath-

er than imposing standardization. A truly

federated architecture is needed, techno-

logically and politically.

effrey

is professor in the School

of Public Administration at Dalhousie

University

(roy@dal.ca)