Canadian Government Executive - Volume 26 - Issue 05

November/December 2020 // Canadian Government Executive / 15 TECHNOLOGY A cross the country, we’ve seen a rapid growth in re- mote work in line with the various distancing measures introduced by Federal and Provincial governments. In March 2020, roughly 40 per cent of Canadians were working remotely to keep themselves and their families safe, with that number generally increasing over the course of the year. 1 The public sector is no different, and is in fact taking the lead to ensure em- ployees are supported and encouraged to work remotely, currently requesting all non-critical staffers be remote unless spe- cifically requested. 2 In their daily lives, Canadians have em- braced online and digital access to the various services they need to limit public interactions and protect each other. From simple, personal tasks, like updating ad- dresses and renewing licenses, to more vital operations and temporary resources like the CERB, the COVID-19 Virtual As- sistant, and longer-term resources like the Canada Response Benefit, the govern- ment has swiftly enabled Canadians to manage their affairs digitally. 3 By embracing these tools and remote measures, the public sector has enabled a largescale transition to an online, con- nected environment. Canadians can work and access key services while limiting face-to-face interactions and reduce the spread of COVID-19. Beyond that, many Canadians are enjoying the benefits of working from distance and digital servic- es, such as being closer to family, cutting long commutes, and spending less time waiting in lines, and to support them, many businesses and operations are em- bracing online access permanently. In July, nearly a quarter of Canadian businesses confirmed that at least 10 per cent of their workforces would continue working remotely on a permanent basis. 4 The Federal and Provincial governments echoed this. The past year has pushed the public sector to implement broader, more robust networks for employees and users alike, and in doing so, an infrastructure to support an expansive remote workforce has been created – and naturally, there are plans to make use of it in the future. This will mean continuing to evolve, maintain, and future-proof this infrastructure to meet user and employee demands in a digital future. 5 This means the public sector will need to continue, and accelerate, its transition to becoming a digitally enabled working environment and service. More day-to- day workers, with larger fluctuations from online visitors, and systems spending lon- ger times under higher loads will demand updated, powerful, and more dense sup- porting equipment and IT infrastructure. While this userbase grows, however, teams across the public sector must work to consolidate and streamline the numer- ous data centre installations support- ing Canada’s governmental institutions. This, among other steps, includes closing aging data centre installations and con- solidating assets into cloud or enterprise solutions to reduce the overall footprint of Canada’s data centres, optimizing the total number of units required to support the growing network. While this is a net positive initiative – re- ducing reliance on aging equipment and largescale data centres to cut costs, save energy, and streamline infrastructure – it can potentially lead to issues as the remote workforce and digital community grow. With more users stressing systems for longer periods, and greater fluctuations as users sign in and out to handle their busi- ness online, there is more opportunity for the network to slow down or fail. While this is enough of a problem for any busi- ness, in the case of the public sector, it can also damage the trust citizens have in their government and questions can arise around ease of use, access, and data secu- rity if the system can’t keep up. As the move to consolidated and efficient data and networking systems continues, amid a significant digital transformation, there is a key opportunity to ensure we im- prove and enhance the equipment and sup- porting infrastructure along the way. Not only can we streamline, but we can also modernize, with an eye on our connected, digitally-enabled future, focusing on fea- tures like scalability, security, power pro- tection, and more, to create an overarching network now that is ready for tomorrow. Modernizing networks and their support- ing infrastructure takes several forms based on the needs of each specific industry, with slightly different approaches for the likes of healthcare or manufacturing for example. At the core, however, initial steps and goals are similar – from the ground up, the sys- tem must be secure, efficient, reliable, scal- able, and simple to maintain – otherwise cost can increase via downtime or rapid replacement, and in the worst case, can put user information at risk. When addressing the growing needs of a digital public sector, one can first look towards elasticity and security. Especially in recent times, data centre installations need to capably handle a rapid influx of data and ensure high availability for users while doing so. Looking ahead, when the peak number of users and time at capacity is routinely exceeded, it’s vital that the cur- rent solution maintain functionality while expanding – or scaling up – to integrate ad- ditional equipment to handle the load. In practice, we see a demand for scal- ability today from all branches of govern- ment. As mentioned, more users than ever are working remotely, and even more, are connecting to citizen services from the safety and comfort of home. As such, each server is more heavily stressed for longer periods of time, and with this new nor- mal-appearing to be a longstanding one, some installations and their supporting infrastructure will need to be scaled up to meet that consistent demand. In the fu- ture, more services may introduce online options, and in turn, will further increase demand, and once again, expansion and updating may be required. This cycle is driving the need for scalability. By plan- ning for expansion now, the overall cost and potential downtime is reduced. Scalable or not, security remains a vital part of the public sector’s data centre net- work. While a detailed approach must be tailored for its users, a constant for any sys- tem is thorough policies that already exist in many government segments that must be upheld. In addition to that, security mea- sures can be increased with modern data centres through segmentation – separating virtual machines and environments and While this is a net positive initiative – reducing reliance on aging equipment and largescale data centres to cut costs, save energy, and streamline infrastructure – it can potentially lead to issues as the remote workforce and digital community grow.