The current situation regarding Open Source in PAs in the UK

1. OSEPA PROJECT PARTNER University of Sheffield (USFD) The current situation regarding Open Source in PAs in the UK Andrea Corbett Research Assistant Department of Computer Science

2. Overview • Open Source successes • Open Source failures • The new Government’s IT strategy • The way forward

3. Successes The Drinkaware trust The Electoral Commission Digital UK Scottish Care Commission Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Voluntary Service overseas Royal College of Paediatrics Directgov Camden Council Carmarthenshire CC • Parliament • Government Communications HQ • National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence • Health Protection Agency • Legal Services Commission • Wales Cooperative Centre • NHS connecting for Health • Warwickshire Police • Schools

4. Some FOSS solutions • Search solutions • Content management • Document management • Databases • CRM systems • Servers • Web services

5. Bristol City Council • One of the most pro-Open Source authorities in the public sector • Open Source strategy • Forced to scale back plans as suppliers failed to adopt Open Standards • Forced to abandon StarOffice and go back to MS Office • Still committed to use as much Open Source as possible Clifton suspension bridge, Bristol

6. Birmingham City Council • Largest local authority in UK • 2005 planned 1500 OpenOffice PCs in Libraries across the authority • 200 implemented • Many failed and reverted to MS Office • Costs higher with OpenOffice than MS Office • Project abandoned • Now reassessing Open Source in view of budget cuts Selfridges building, Birmingham

7. Why did they fail? • Shortage of skills in Open Source • Changes to IT processes • Problems with desktop interfaces • Lack of support for removable drives • Incompatibility with key applications • High costs for development and project management • End user resistance • Problems with file formats

8. Some statistics • Population of UK 62million approximately • 433 Local Authorities + Central Government • 130+ data centres in Central Government • 90,000 servers within Central Government running at <10% utilization • Thousands of data centres and comms rooms across public sector • 200K+ servers across public sector • 10,000+ distinct applications • 600 desktop licences in Central Government • 4 to 5 million desktop licences in wider public sector • No aggregation of application demand • No data mobility between departments • Under or over software licensing at a departmental level

9. UK Government spending

10. Core principles • Open Data – government data must be transparent • Open Source works – its concepts should be applied to processes as much as to IT • Open Standards will drive interoperability, save money and prevent vendor lock-in • Open Markets – competition creates efficient market-based solutions.

11. "Legally we're not allowed to specify a product, but we can push open standards and government departments to consider open source" Bill McLuggage Government Deputy CIO Public Sector Enterprise ICT Conference 2010

12. So what is the plan? • Government G-cloud • App store for government (ASG) • Consolidated data centres • Community Source/Open Source • Government assistance to collaborate with other public authorities • 25% IT contracts to SMEs

14. What is the ASG? • The ASG will be the online ICT Marketplace for the Public Sector • “Find IT, build IT, run IT, share IT” • Services in the Store will include: • G-Cloud Certified ICT Applications and solutions • Other ICT Services; PSN, Hardware, Common Desktop, Service Management etc • Access to a development toolkit

15. How will the ASG work? • There will be a Certified Zone and an Open Zone • Services in the Certified Zone will have been "pre-procured” • Innovation encouraged in the Open Zone • Products available in a standardized, simple and low cost way whilst maintaining legal compliance • Price and Performance Rating will be visible for comparison, promoting competition and service excellence. • You can search or advertise for new applications and services. • Services at “Latest Best Price”

16. Consolidation of data centres Significant Central Government data centre reduction by 2020, and a reduction of 80% across the wider Public Sector End point Reduce to an optimum number of modern, resilient, efficient and secure data centres that may also act as infrastructure for the G-Cloud Goal Hundreds of public sector data centres running to different standards, some at capacity limits, others with unused space Today

17. Goals for the programme • Reduce ICT costs, supplier lock-in, time from idea to service and carbon footprint • Create open, vibrant competitive marketplace • These will be achieved through: • Deployment across the whole of Public Sector • Sharing and re-use of all relevant Public Sector ICT services across organizational boundaries • Driving standardization and simplification

18. So what now? • It won’t happen overnight – long term view • Data centre consolidation is already starting • Can start to use more Open Source • Can open up market place to SMEs • Central Government to lead the way • They can’t compel wider public sector to follow • They have to make it attractive