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First agencies sign up for GSN

5 October 2006

The State Services Commission today announced the signing of the first agency contracts for the Government Shared Network (GSN), with the Department of Labour and Maritime New Zealand. These agencies are the first two of five agencies that will migrate network services to the GSN when they come on stream around the end of 2006.

Formal agreements with other agencies, including the Ministry of Education and State Services Commission are also close to completion, with 17 more agencies signalling their intention to sign.

Laurence Millar, Deputy Commissioner Information and Communications Technology, said "These signings are a terrific first step towards a more a robust, flexible communications infrastructure to support cross-sector and inter-agency initiatives."

"The GSN directly supports the delivery of efficient and effective public services and is an important tool for a networked, coordinated and accessible State Services," Laurence Millar said (pictured, right).

Laurence Millar and James Buwalda signing the contracts"The Department of Labour is excited with the prospect of being able to unify our networks through the GSN services. By integrating our disparate networks and service providers, our working environment will become much more efficient and accessible," said James Buwalda, Chief Executive and Secretary of Labour (pictured, left).

Maritime New Zealand Director Russell Kilvington said "we signed up to GSN for practical reasons: better value for our investment in this technology, and a better choice of products and services that would have otherwise been beyond our budget."

The GSN provides a networking platform designed to meet the needs of the State Services. It enables inter-agency collaboration and facilitates easier and more efficient access to information across a dedicated infrastructure secured to government standards.

Products available to participating agencies include:

  • High-speed interconnection of agencies with adherence to a 'RESTRICTED' level security standard.
  • Secure remote access for agency staff.
  • A secure Internet Gateway with security features including, virus and SPAM filtering.
  • Internet telephony.
  • Access to storage options including storage on demand.

Laurence Millar said "a number of key features of the GSN are available only through the GSN. Participation in a controlled access, secure government network is not available as a product from any commercial supplier."