Next-generation citizen services: Is there an availability gap? If so, how do we close it?

Communications and citizen experience within the government sector is being redefined. The world as a whole, as well as the Australian government, is going through what can only be called a digital explosion. With exponential growth in connectable things, overall connected devices and data, ‘digital service’ is transforming citizen interactions from the traditional ‘episodic’ to the ‘real-time’ experience.

With over 50% of DHS services conducted online and over 88% of all Medicare claims processed digitally, availability of services and access to systems, data, applications and resources has never been more crucial in the delivery of government and citizen-centric digital services.

This is what will underpin digital transformation for government.

Transformation is about harnessing the value of the Internet of Things (IoT), protecting the digital asset of data within the government paradigm and minimising the impact of downtime to citizen critical services to ensure compliance, access and differentiated service. How do we create an ‘always-on’ government, with access to services, personal/citizen information and data?

The answer is a software-defined data centre.

A software-defined data centre is about driving operational and technical outcomes and using a lot of physical to virtual types of technologies. The ultimate software-defined data centres are Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure and cloud platform service providers. Users do not need to build them and can simply consume them. But when people do build or consume them, their primary purpose is to manufacture apps and content for people in the workforce and wider world.

A software-defined data centre must therefore be focused on delivering and enabling business and human outcomes.

By 2020, four out of five Australians will engage with the government through an online service, and data centre infrastructure will be the enabler. Delivering availability within data centres is more crucial than ever — government agencies are demanding provision IT services faster, strengthened security and control, and lower operational costs. Meanwhile, citizens are demanding 24/7 operations and access, and have zero patience for downtime and data loss.

The digitally transformed data centre will deliver true and flexible ITaaS capabilities for government to interact and provide always-on services and access to citizens.