GSN - Frequently Asked Questions

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About the Government Shared Network (GSN)

What is the GSN?

The Government Shared Network is a secure network linking government agencies with high-speed Internet and telecommunication services. It comprises a fibre-optic network (which currently is accessible from the Auckland and Wellington central business districts) as well as a wide area network linking agency locations around New Zealand.

Why is government doing this?

The GSN provides a foundation for transformational improvement in the provision of state services.

The use of telecommunications by many government agencies can be significantly improved by adopting a corporate approach to security, connection and cost effectiveness.

The security of government information systems is significantly improved by consolidating expertise and resources at a small number of network connections.

A shared network provides connection at the telecommunications network layer, which helps to achieve collaboration between agencies for data exchange, shared services and joint service delivery.

Significant improvements in cost-effectiveness are achieved through consolidated use of network services. The Government Shared Network replaces and rationalises duplicated services currently employed by government agencies and delivers a suite of converged voice, video and data transmission at a lower unit cost than that currently available to many agencies through existing supply arrangements.

How does the GSN relate to the Digital Strategy?

The GSN also makes a valuable contribution to the Digital Strategy connection goal that New Zealand will be in the top quarter of the OECD for broadband uptake by 2010 by providing the telecommunications infrastructure required for networked state services.

Are the Advanced Network and the GSN the same thing?

The Advanced Network (now known as KAREN) and the Government Shared Network share many similarities but they are different networks with different attributes and objectives.

REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd) is the Crown-owned company set up to establish, own and operate a high-speed telecommunications network for the research and education sectors. It supplies high-capacity, high-speed interconnections between research and education institutions (and organisations associated with them in New Zealand) and with overseas counterparts but does not provide the services that run over the infrastructure. A Network Use Policy governs business traffic on the KAREN network. Additional information can be found at www.reannz.co.nz.

The Government Shared Network has a broader scope, providing a range of business and communication services over a resilient network linking all government agencies and operating to commercial service levels.

Both initiatives are collaborating to ensure the most efficiently leveraged deployment of government network infrastructure.

How does the GSN relate to the E-government Interoperability Framework?

The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) is a collection of policies and standards endorsed for New Zealand government information technology (IT) systems. It has the following benefits:

• Helps government agencies more easily work together electronically.
• Makes systems, knowledge and experience reusable from one agency to another.
• Reduces the effort required to deal with government online by encouraging consistency of approach.

The GSN fully complies with the e-GIF standards.

Is the Government building its own network?

No. The GSN acquires and integrates services from existing providers and manages those services.

Is this the same as a syndicated procurement contract?

A syndicated procurement contract is a pre-negotiated range of services that an agency purchases directly from a supplier under an umbrella contract.

The GSN integrates services to deliver products that cannot be purchased in the same form directly from suppliers. It is therefore not a syndicate procurement contract.

Who is responsible for implementing the GSN?

As there is currently no natural 'home' within the machinery of government for delivery of cross-agency ICT services, Cabinet has instructed the State Services Commission (SSC) to undertake the establishment of such services and make recommendations on the most appropriate ongoing organisational form.

The State Services Commission is leading the project to implement and operate the GSN, in close consultation with participating agencies. A governance board comprising senior representatives of participating agencies will set the long-term strategic direction.

The organisational form of the GSN in terms of its long term home will be reviewed with advice to Ministers before mid-2008.

If management and operation of the GSN is moved out of the SSC in the future will this replicate Government Computing Services (GCS) that existed some 20 years ago?

No. GCS was centralised management of centralised infrastructure. The GSN provides shared infrastructure that can be managed by participating agencies.

Other differences are that use of GSN products is not mandated and the GSN will not operate application packages or undertake applications development. These functions will continue to be performed by Agencies.

The GSN does not constitute a "gatekeeper" between agencies and suppliers. It leverages and integrates supplier capability and will facilitate supplier - agency relationships.

How does the GSN fit with the all-of-government Authentication service?

GSN will interface to the all-of-government authentication solution to provide a two-factor authentication mechanism for remote access by agency staff.

If an agency has equipment at a third-party data centre can GSN connect to that equipment?

Individual connections can be provided to any data centre location. Where agency demand exists and fibre links are available GSN will look at provisioning shared high-speed connections.

There are three options for connections between an agency and a trusted third party:

• The agency can provide the trusted party with a remote user connection (as if they were an agency staff member).
• The third party can take a connection from the GSN that provides access to authorised agency sites via the Internet.
• The third party can take a dedicated connection from the GSN that, subject to agency authorisation, allows them to connect directly to their multiple agency customers.

Can GSN connect to an agency's equipment off shore?

The GSN provides no international connections at this time though international internet access is provided.

How will GSN keep up with the technology?

The GSN will maintain relationships with key suppliers in the NZ market place and will facilitate formal and informal forums to ensure agencies are aware of relevant emerging technologies and new developments.

The ongoing GSN programme will include an architecture function with responsibility to stay abreast of relevant technology developments.

Can the GSN provide services other than those listed - such as Facilities Management - given they have a data centre?

The GSN team will discuss each agency's requirements and advise if there is value that can be added to the agency by GSN providing the service. In the case of facilities management, this may be by facilitating the activities of a specialist third party.

New services proposed to be provided by the GSN will require the development of a business case and Cabinet approval.

GSN Availability

Is the GSN available now?

The first products (based around the GSN's fibre and WAN infrastructure) are available now.

What measures has SSC taken to ensure smooth GSN implementation?

The GSN Project reports to a Steering Group comprising Agency CIO-level representatives, and independent industry representative(s) and the Managing Director of IBM NZ (in IBM's capacity as the GSN's Service Manager).

A number of measures have been taken to ensure a smooth implementation. These include:

• Experienced technical staff have been retained to design and develop the network and complete its deployment.
• Independent QA has been retained to provide assurance across the deployment project. Project conduct and progress is also reviewed by Audit NZ and The Treasury.
• IBM has been retained as the GSN's Service Manager to design the operational processes, provide the GSN service desk, provide network monitoring and management processes and operate the network operations.
• An independent review of network operations readiness has been commissioned to report in February 2007.
• An extensive GSN testing regime is in place.
• Products will be released progressively and agencies will be connected to new products progressively to ensure facilities and services are well bedded down.

Agency Participation in the GSN

Who can join GSN?

Participation in a controlled access, secure government network is not available as a product from any commercial supplier.

State Services agencies eligible to participate in the GSN are

• All Public Service departments
• Non-Public Service departments
• Crown Entities (Independent and Autonomous)
• Offices of Parliament
• Crown Agents
• Local Government

Public Service departments will be required, and other government agencies will be invited, to formally evaluate the use of the Government Shared Network when their network supply contracts are re-negotiated. The GSN can provide an evaluation framework for this purpose.

How will government agencies benefit from the shared network?

There are a number of potential benefits for agencies individually and for government as a whole:

• It facilitates inter-agency collaboration and delivery of joined-up government services by providing a secure connectivity environment for data exchange/sharing.
• Agencies have access to network capability and products/technology usually available only to large ICT capable agencies.
• Agencies are able to retire currently duplicated infrastructure through sharing of the core network, security management and Internet perimeter.
• The shared network takes care of many standard day-to day infrastructure services so agencies can focus their resources on providing their core programmes and services.
• Their telecommunications services are stable, secure and cost effective.

The shared network is expected to bring cost savings to participating agencies, meaning better value for taxpayers. Cost efficiencies are achieved through:

• Economies of scale - GSN aggregates agency purchasing power in the telecommunications market.
• Standardisation of core products and services.
• Removing technical barriers to cheaper, more efficient methods of interagency communication.
• Reducing time and money spent responding to internet security risks.
• Reducing agencies internet and phone costs.

What level of control does an agency have over its own environment?

Agencies will, of course, retain responsibility for their own enterprise infrastructure, such as Local Area Networks. The GSN provides participating agencies with their own virtual firewall for interfacing to the GSN, which the agency will control. Agencies also own and manage their own Internet policies.

Where feasible, agencies have access to facilities that will allow them to manage the configurations of some of their own network services. Services that can be directly managed by agencies include:

• The GSN provided agency firewall.
• The User VPN concentrator for remote access.
• DNS

How does the shared network cater to the unique needs of individual agencies?

The shared network is all about collaboration between agencies, from project governance right down to the technical installation. Agency input into the design and development of the shared network ensures that the system serves the unique requirements of individual agencies.

The GSN provides enabling infrastructure packaged for government use. Its modular nature means that agencies can assemble service components to satisfy unique requirements and new blocks can be added as required by agencies.

Will agency resources be needed when migrating to the GSN?

Agency resources will be needed to help with the design and migration of the agency to the products.

The extent of the effort required on an agency's part depends on the product set required and the complexity of the existing agency infrastructure.

Agencies should anticipate a similar effort profile to that required if migrating to any new network environment, for example following a decision the change primary network carrier.

What is the process for moving from test to production?

GSN provisions and tests the products required by the agency. The agency then carries out user acceptance testing and authorises productionisation. The cut-over to production will take place by agreement.

What technical skills do agencies need to retain in-house after taking GSN services?

This will depend on the mix of products the agency is taking from the GSN. The GSN team will work with each agency to determine ongoing support requirements and advise on how these can best be met.

Can the GSN absorb any personnel that are no longer needed by an agency?

In general, adoption of GSN products can be expected to free up some technical expertise, enabling this to focus on higher value agency work rather than be displaced. In the event that such resource cannot be re-absorbed, there is no formal arrangement to transfer staff, however GSN would be happy to consider any such staff on their merits on a case-by-case basis.

How can an agency be involved in the ongoing evolution of the GSN?

The GSN provides enabling infrastructure services packaged for government use. Complex, application-based services are outside the scope of the GSN - it will enable but not manage or provide higher-level or customised services. As the scope of the services has been deliberately restricted, the requirement to influence services is seen as less important than for agency-specific applications.

Nevertheless, the GSN encourages agencies to identify innovations that can be incorporated into the GSN to better support the achievement of agencies' strategy objectives.

In addition to the GSN Steering Group (comprising invited participating agency representatives), a GSN Advisory Panel (user group) has been established with one representative on the GSN Steering Group.

Is a formal agreement needed to join the GSN?

Yes an agreement is needed. For public service organisations the agreement to take and provide services is in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). For other organisations, it is a contract.

The MoU or contract covers the terms and conditions, product definitions, pricing and service level provisions required in a telecommunications supply contract.

Does each agency's legal team need to review the agreement?

The agreement has been developed as a standard set of provisions and has been reviewed by legal teams of the initial (foundation) agencies. Agencies may review the terms at their discretion however there is no compulsion to do so.

Security

How robust is the GSN?

The network has been designed to be highly resilient, and able to survive any single critical network component or location failure. The design has been reviewed by several agencies and suppliers. As part of the evaluation process, agencies looking to join the GSN are able to review the design and implementation in detail.

The government has retained an experienced network operator, IBM, to provide service management operations and processes. The operational processes are based on, and are independently audited against, ITIL standards. A minimum capability maturity level of 3 is to be delivered against all service management dimensions. The timetable for this is phased over 2007.

What if the network fails?

The resiliency/redundancy that is a feature of the network design means that the GSN cannot fail in its entirety. The risk of failures such as physical breaks/cuts to network circuits is much the same as would be expected with a commercial telecommunications provider. The GSN requires that all suppliers of infrastructure services provide appropriate business continuity and disaster recovery plans to cover their own services. All suppliers of infrastructure and services to the GSN are also bound by formal service level agreements including a penalty/earn-back regime designed to drive the required operational performance.

How secure is the GSN?

The GSN complies with the Security in the Government Sector (SIGS) and New Zealand Security of Information Technology (NZSIT-400) standards. As such security will be viewed from physical, logical, and personal perspectives.

The network provides various levels of security, or zones, to protect agencies from possible risks from external networks, including the Internet, third-party suppliers, and business communities such as the Citylink network. The GSN provides advanced detection of security intrusion and, in relevant areas, automated intrusion protection.

Participating and evaluating agencies may review the GSN's security management policies in detail.

Who can see the information on the network and access the logs?

Access to information and logs is tightly controlled. GSN staff are authorised for access only to the extent required for support and maintenance purposes. An agency will only have access to its own information. A full audit trail is maintained of any accesses.

Do agencies have to have a security policy in place to join GSN?

The GSN does place certain expectations on participating agencies, but the question of security policy (and related security risk assessment) relates to wider agency obligations under Security in Government Systems (SIGS) and NZSIT-400. Joining the GSN will assist an agency to comply with key aspects, but ultimate accountability for self-assessment of sensitivity of information and policy and risk assessment remains with the agency.

SIGS notes that all agencies should have a risk management strategy, with their assessment of risk and suitable countermeasures based on the principles defined in AS/NZS 4360:1999 - Risk Management and AS/NZS ISO/IEC 17999:2001 - Information Technology Code of Practice for Information Security Management.

The NZSIT-400 standard recommends that each agency should appoint an IT Security Manager and lists their responsibilities. In summary, the IT Security Manager is responsible for ensuring that appropriate security is applied during the life of the agency's IT systems.

What is the security responsibility of the participating agencies?

Participating agencies are responsible for ensuring that their networks and computing resources are adequately protected and monitored to minimise the risk of them being used to attack another party on or through the GSN (e.g. through a "back-door" into the network) and to provide appropriate protection to other agencies' information as required by its security classification (IN CONFIDENCE, SENSITIVE or RESTRICTED). It should be noted however that the GSN's own security mechanisms ensure that there is little risk of a threat from an agency affecting other GSN participating agencies.

Agencies are also responsible for ensuring that they report any incidents and potential security issues to the GSN Service Manager as soon as possible after becoming aware of the problem.

Commercial Framework

Is the shared network commercially viable?

While the GSN must be financially sustainable, it does not operate for profit.

The GSN commercial framework models the three interrelated factors of agency uptake, product pricing and cost of provision.

GSN pricing reflects the cost to provide the products and has been set after extensive consultation with agencies. From consultation with agencies to date it is apparent that there are a wide range of pricing plans offered by suppliers. In comparing these to the GSN pricing, agencies will not be disadvantaged relative to commercially available product offerings. Prices have been set at an expected year 3 uptake level so initial agencies are not bearing a disproportionate share of start-up costs.

The GSN pricing model will be reviewed annually by the GSN Steering Group and will reflect any movement in market prices upward or downward. The pricing model also recognises the need for regular technology refreshes.

Will agencies be left high and dry if the commercial model fails?

The commercial model is based on a debt facility provided by the government that underwrites establishment costs and operating expenses while agency participation ramps up. In the event the agency uptake does not eventuate as planned, there are several options open to the government.

Who pays if SSC and / or vendors fail and it costs an agency to manage fallout?

There is no provision for penalties between agencies and the GSN as the initiative operates as if the GSN packages the services and manages the network on behalf of participating agencies - in effect being the "network management department".

Supplier service level failures will attract penalties and these may be applied to offset agency costs. This would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Do agencies have to go to RFI/RFP before buying from GSN?

Contracts for GSN have been awarded in accordance with the Mandatory Rules for Procurement by Departments, so any agency covered by the Rules that wishes to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding or contract with the SSC for GSN services does not need to go to tender.

How does the invoicing work and when do charges start?

Agencies will receive an electronic invoice for GSN charges including GST. Payment is arranged via direct debit to minimise processing and administrative costs.

For most services, billing will commence when the service has been installed and the agency has given formal acceptance or started to use the service for production purposes.

Service Desk / Service Availability

Will there be a help desk or service desk available? How do I contact it?

The GSN features a fully managed service desk that is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Service Desk will log all calls and assign priority for resolution by the appropriate party in accordance with agreed service levels.

It is intended that agency users will firstly report incidents or faults with the agency's own help desk. If the fault is deemed to be GSN-related, the agency's help desk will report this to the GSN Service Desk.

Agency support staff will have Internet access (via an agency portal) to view the status of incidents as well as telephone and email access.

Are Services measured?

The agreement that agencies sign with GSN contains service levels which are be measured and reported on. Service performance will also be visible on the GSN agency portal.

A performance measurement framework is in place to report to stakeholders including participating agencies, Treasury and Ministers.

Do agencies have access to service reports?

The agency portal will enable access via the Internet to service reports.

Is there a Framework that the Service Management is based on?

The GSN infrastructure and services are under the direct control of the GSN Service Manager, who will employ guidelines from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) service management framework developed by the UK Office of Commerce and recognised as a reference for the best practices in IT service management.

What can agencies do if they are not satisfied with the quality of the GSN service?

Agencies are welcome to provide day-to-day service feedback by either contacting the Service Desk, or the agency's SSC ICT Services Manager. Regular meetings will also be held with agencies at which issues can be discussed.

If these approaches are not satisfactory there are defined escalation procedures. The GSN MOU or contract defines how disputes and disagreements are addressed in a formal sense.

Suppliers / Vendors

How many suppliers or vendors does the GSN have?

In addition to IBM (the GSN Service Manager), the GSN has some ten other key suppliers who provide services or products that are integrated to deliver the GSN products. This ensures that GSN is not dependent on a single source of supply and fosters competition.

The GSN suppliers were selected through an extensive formal tender process.

Does the GSN compete with suppliers?

The GSN is developed by the government for use by government agencies. Some products are not available from the supplier community. The GSN aggregates supplier capability and delivers this to agencies - so in this sense it does not compete with suppliers.

Can agencies continue to maintain a direct relationship with the suppliers?

Yes. In addition, GSN will facilitate agency-supplier information transfer.

Is the GSN just another Telco?

The GSN differs from Telcos in a number of respects:

• Its products have been designed by and for government agencies, and agencies will continue to influence its future development.
• The commercial model embodies a "use it" philosophy. That is to say, if the capacity is available and there is no additional cost to the GSN, then agencies can (subject to reasonable use policies), take advantage of this without incurring additional cost.
• The GSN does not operate for profit but its pricing is set to be sustainable.
• The network has been designed to be secured in accordance with the NZSIT-400 standards to 'RESTRICTED' level.
• An "us and us" philosophy is fostered through the agreement with agencies (MOU or contract), and robust contractual agreements are in place with suppliers.