Information and Communications Technology Strategy 2014-2017

Contents

1 Background – ICT in Geoscience Australia........................................................................................... 2 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Geoscience Australia and the Role of ICT ....................................................................................... 2 1.4 Stakeholders .................................................................................................................................... 4

2 Strategic drivers, vision and principles .................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Strategic Drivers .............................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 Unifying Strategic Vision .................................................................................................................. 5 2.3 ICT Guiding Principles ..................................................................................................................... 7

3 Strategies for Implementation ............................................................................................................... 8 3.1 ICT Strategies for 2014-2017 .......................................................................................................... 8 3.2 People ............................................................................................................................................10 3.3 Progress .........................................................................................................................................11 3.4 Roadmaps ......................................................................................................................................12

Information and Communications Technology Strategy 2014-2017 1

1 Background – ICT in Geoscience Australia

1.1 Introduction The Geoscience Australia Information Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy is a statement of intent for the strategic direction of Geoscience Australia ICT in the context of the agency’s Strategic Directions and Science Principles.

The ICT Strategy has been informed through consultative arrangements with Geoscience Australia science divisions, ICTIS and Corporate Services on the current and future ICT-related needs of the agency, together with an assessment of the external environment.

The Strategy addresses a framework for proposed investment in ICT over the three-year period 2014 to 2017 in terms of:

1. Strategic vision – where to go and why;

2. Strategic intent – what to do; and

3. Strategic execution – how to achieve it.

The Geoscience Australia ICT Roadmaps, Work Plan and Divisional Work Plans provide the detail on the activity each year.

The ICT Strategy is reviewed and updated annually, taking account of changes in Geoscience Australia’s strategic environment, priorities and the financial resources available, with a view to maintain a rolling three year strategy. This version of the ICT Strategy is the fourth in this series (dated November 2014, the original being dated November 2010) and recognises the rapid rate of change and maturity – in Geoscience Australia, government, the ICT industry and external drivers – and the matching complexity to broker, integrate and support an increasing number of environments across a broad ICT ecosystem.

1.2 Purpose The purpose of the ICT Strategy is to:

• Provide the overarching reference for all ICT decision making, especially investment and architectural decisions;

• Set enterprise ICT directions, architecture and priorities for Geoscience Australia that align with the agency’s Strategic Plan, stakeholder needs, government information and data policies, and whole of government directions set out in the APS ICT Strategy 2012-15; and

• Communicate and promote the agreed understanding of ICT direction and ICT priorities in support of Geoscience Australia’s activities at all levels in the agency and externally.

1.3 Geoscience Australia and the Role of ICT Science is at the centre of government industry policy because it can provide the answers to questions on how Australia can be more competitive. Geoscience Australia’s mission to provide geoscience information, services and capability to the Australian Government, industry and stakeholders is


dependent on ICT to enable, innovate and support all of the Geoscience Australia value streams and associated scientific activities.

Traditionally, Geoscience Australia’s principal customers have been from government, industry, environment and broader science professions. However, Geoscience Australia’s stakeholder base has broadened to include law enforcement, emergency management, defence, primary production, international aid, telecommunications, civil planning, indigenous communities and outdoor recreation. This stakeholder base is no longer demanding just geoscience products, but wants to build their own products and collaborate across domains. This places demands for underpinning fundamental science data in standardised formats that can be consumed by external systems via data services. This paradigm of ‘build your own product’ – based on online access to Geoscience Australia data and other data sources – is fast emerging.

The role of Geoscience Australia’s ICT function is therefore to:

• Provide, broker, integrate and manage a well-architected ecosystem of agile, flexible, responsive and sustainable ICT systems and services from a range of internal and external sources;

• Develop and sustain Geoscience Australia’s ICT capability to innovate and support scientific, spatial, strategic and operational objectives;

• Ensure enduring stewardship and maximum re-use of Geoscience Australia’s scientific data;

• Enable Geoscience Australia to adapt to the changing needs of both government priorities and its broadening stakeholder base;

• Improve Geoscience Australia’s workforce productivity; and

• Enable Geoscience Australia to collaborate both internally and externally.

Geoscience Australia’s ICT is governed by the ICT Strategy Committee (ICTSC), whose membership comprises the Chief Information Officer, Chiefs of the Divisions, Chief Scientist and General Manager Corporate – all of whom are Geoscience Australia Executive Board members. The ICTSC meets quarterly with a standing agenda to examine strategy and risk. Key supporting groups comprise:

• the Geoscience Australia Business Advisory Committee, who provide an interface between science and ICT leadership on innovation and business focussed advice to the CIO on priority setting;

• the Geoscience Australia ICT Architecture Committee, who provide endorsement of whole of agency architecture for the delivery of new and existing services;

• the Geoscience Australia Scientific Data Stewardship Steering Committee, who advise on whole of agency data stewardship consistent with national and international standards and best practice;

• The Geoscience Australia eResearch Science Steering Committee, who provide oversight of the application of new high performance compute and data technologies to agency science;

• The Geoscience Australia HPD / HPC Implementation Committee, who oversight the technical implementation of actions from the eResearch Science Steering Committee ; and

• Communities of Practice across a broad range of ICT and scientific domains, providing advice on standards, requirements and priorities.

Included in the enterprise ICT function (ICT Innovation and Services – ICTIS), Geoscience Australia has appointed Divisional Information Officers (DIOs) whose role is to provide strategic advice and leadership on ICT and science data stewardship for each Science Division and Corporate Services. The DIOs are included in the ICT IS Management Team to: (i) provide input to ICT strategy and


priorities; (ii) bring an enterprise ICT approach into the business; and (iii) coordinate ICT work planning and data stewardship with an enterprise perspective.

Geoscience Australia is a member of the Australian Government Science ICT Network, which is a cohort of government science agency CIOs with the purpose to develop and communicate an agenda of shared strategic issues and to act as a strategic engagement point for a wide variety of stakeholders, government, collaboration partners and industry. Geoscience Australia is also a member of the Department of Industry Portfolio CIO Committee.

1.4 Stakeholders The major stakeholders of the Geoscience Australia ICT Strategy include:

• ICT IS as the focal point for ICT in Geoscience Australia;

• Geoscience Australia Staff – in the context of ICT as a partner in enabling staff productivity and innovation in science;

• Minister for Industry / Department of Industry – as key consumers of Geoscience Australia advice;

• Geoscience Australia Executive Board – as the recognised body responsible for the agency’s strategic direction and strategic level stakeholder management;

• Geoscience Australia Senior Leadership Team – as the recognised body responsible for the agency’s work planning and implementation;

• Geoscience Australia ICT Strategy Committee – as the recognised body in support of the Chief Information Officer for ICT strategy and planning;

• The Department of Education and Training – as the government department responsible for the 2012 National Research Investment Plan and 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure, into which Geoscience Australia is integrating data, computational and storage services;

• The Department of Communications – as the government department responsible for federal spatial data policy, including the government’s open spatial data strategy;

• The Department of Finance– as the government department responsible for whole of government ICT policy and strategy;

• Australian Government Science ICT Network – as the recognised body that coordinates ICT collaboration across government science agencies; and

• Consumers of Geoscience Australia data services – government, industry, research and the general public.

2 Strategic drivers, vision and principles

2.1 Strategic Drivers ICT and science is rapidly advancing in the government, industry and research sectors. As new technologies and capabilities arise, there are new demands to acquire, implement, monitor and support them to meet strategic and operational needs. Change is occurring more rapidly than ever before and requires an annual review of the ICT and science drivers for change.

Chief among the drivers shaping Geoscience Australia’s ICT over the next three years are:


• The need to meet a broadening client base with expanding needs. Internal users and external stakeholders want more services of high quality more quickly. ICT IS is no longer a monopoly provider of ICT services to Geoscience Australia, given the widespread availability from numerous sources across the internet, in the cloud and in collaboration with other entities.

• Access to rapidly evolving and maturing national and commercial ICT infrastructures, including the National Computational Infrastructure and cloud computing, present numerous opportunities to share infrastructure, services and resources that will enhance Geoscience Australia’s scientific and technical capabilities and ability to deliver our products and data.

• An exponential increase in the volume of scientific data and storage requirements generated from new ICT capability, such as satellites and other real-time geophysical networks.

• Emergence of open source software ecosystems across national and international research communities.

• Geoscience Australia’s Science Principles that underpin a commitment to provide quality, transparent, reproducible, collaborative and communicated science.

• Government policy in relation to open government, digitisation, open data, cloud, whole-of-government ICT procurement, security and privacy.

• Demand for Geoscience Australia web data services to enable machine-to-machine consumption of our scientific and spatial data.

• Growth of quantitative science and demand for data-intensive high performance computing.

• Integration of mobile platforms and technologies into society. Geoscience Australia staff and stakeholders now have high expectations for modern ICT and to be able to access data and systems from anywhere on any device.

• Increased reliance on Geoscience Australia data and infrastructure for national emergency management demands robust and reliable systems and support for the real time geomagnetic, seismic, geodetic and satellite data that Geoscience Australia collects.

• Geoscience Australia staff survey feedback that demands modernisation of existing systems and self-service to integrated, quality, flexible, responsive and agile support across internal and external ICT services.

• A growing and unsustainable percentage of Geoscience Australia capital expenditure allocated to internal ICT infrastructure.

2.2 Unifying Strategic Vision The vision for ICT in Geoscience Australia is for a trusted partnership between the internal ICT function, corporate function and the science divisions to bring together the best of ICT and the best of geoscience and geospatial developments that will enable optimal outcomes for Geoscience Australia.

The delivery of this vision extends beyond the boundaries of Geoscience Australia – with emerging national research and cloud infrastructures that include Geoscience Australia data, compute, storage, software, networks and people. The role of the ICT function is to architect and integrate Geoscience Australia into this national and international environment, both as a provider, broker and integrator of sustainable ICT services as appropriate.


Figure 1 Geoscience Australia’s ICT Vision


2.3 ICT Guiding Principles The ICT Guiding Principles are high level statements intended to guide all Geoscience Australia ICT activity and are complemented by the existing Science Principles and Data Stewardship Policy and Principles.

• Actively and explicitly consider external options for each ICT service with respect to both BAU and system development projects.

• Consider external cloud hosting and on-line delivery as a default option for all new infrastructure and services and the renewal of existing services approaching end of life. Any remaining ICT infrastructure and disaster recovery will be housed in external, fit for purpose data centres.

• Service and people skills balance: − Focus on internal resourcing to where Geoscience Australia staff adds the highest long term

value such as services that are specialised to the agency or where face-to-face contact is paramount.

− Develop and support staff to provide and manage these services. − Broker and integrate the remaining. − Provide holistic support across the full range of services.

• Adopt lean and agile service delivery processes.

• Automate and integrate ICT services where possible for repeatable processes to reduce reliance on siloed systems, documentation and individual knowledge.

• Embrace a ’trust and monitor’ risk management approach when implementing new architectures and systems, delivering increased productivity balanced by increased visibility and personal accountability.

• Geoscience Australia’s scientific data and software will be shared, open, discoverable, available for re-use and managed as an enduring asset within the ecosystem of digital data storage and delivery infrastructure.

• Geoscience Australia’s scientific data will be discoverable online, available in machine readable, open formats and accessible via standards-based web services.

• Open source licensing as the default option for all new software development and redevelopment in order to support collaboration, re-use and to maintain harmony with the global scientific communities.

• Geoscience Australia will deploy architecture to ensure that ICT systems and data will be interoperable, reusable and capable of being repurposed. − Facilitate portability of applications. − Enable Geoscience Australia to cheaply and rapidly utilise the full spectrum of service

providers and devices. − Reduce ICT system complexity and aid in portability and reuse. − Reduce impact of security breaches. − Facilitate testability and upgrades.

• Geoscience Australia ICT systems and data must be accessible to internal users and external stakeholders from anywhere on any device.

• The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) will be the default choice for all science High Performance Computing (HPC) and High Performance Data (HPD). Geoscience Australia will collaborate with the NCI and partner entities to broker any further partnerships for such services.

• Geoscience Australia will have a service catalogue for all client and non-client facing ICT services, whether provided internally or externally.


• Geoscience Australia will have a data storage architecture that will determine ‘what goes where’ across the wider ICT ecosystem and in the further layers of the architectural stack of infrastructure and software.

3 Strategies for Implementation

3.1 ICT Strategies for 2014-2017 Geoscience Australia has developed specific strategies to address the identified strategic drivers and to enable Geoscience Australia to realise the unifying ICT vision. For most of these challenges, the technology exists today. The challenge lies in applying appropriate standards, defining common requirements, investing wisely, and ultimately building or brokering flexible solutions that will support the diversity of Geoscience Australia.

Government ICT Strategies

• The September 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure.

• The November 2012 National Research Investment Plan.

• The Australian Public Service Information and Communications Technology Strategy 2012-2015 (APS Strategy).

• The Australian Government Cloud Computing Policy Version 3.0 October 2014.

• Whole of Government ICT arrangements to implement efficiencies and standardisation through greater collaboration, sharing of services and an increasing emphasis on ICT security.

ICT Strategies to Support and Enhance Geoscience Australia’s Scientific Capability

• Enhance Geoscience Australia’s scientific capability through the use of the best software solutions available. By preference, we will use open source and existing “trusted community codes” for software development, or leverage existing scientific software. Where no suitable software is available we will promote open collaborative development of new code with other science agencies and researchers.

• Provide computing support and advice to: − Facilitate project entry into scientific computing. The enhancement of quantitative science will

result in improved quality and understanding of the associated errors and uncertainty. − Facilitate the migration to HPC and Australia’s government investment in national research

infrastructure. HPC offers the potential of processing larger data sets, at higher resolutions, as well as, enabling scientific techniques not possible in other environments.

− Facilitate the migration to cloud computing. Cloud computing offers rapid deployment, reallocation and scalability of infrastructure resources.

• Develop and support HPD structures. HPD enable the efficient processing of large datasets through the optimisation of design for HPC. HPD is also designed to enable the interoperability of multiple data types from different scientific domains.

• Develop and provide infrastructures that enable globally distributed resources (data, tools and compute) to be accessed from multiple platforms, including tools and services to enable automated workflow and the collection of provenance.


• Provide open access to Geoscience Australia’s science capabilities through the development and support of open software and platforms such as virtual laboratories that provide scientific capabilities and decision support as services.

ICT Strategies to Support and Enhance Geoscience Australia’s Spatial Capability

• Ensure ICT strategies are fully aligned with international best practice and innovation in the government and industry spatial sectors.

• Facilitate whole of Government spatial data access and interoperability initiatives (e.g. Foundation Spatial Data Framework, ANZLIC, National Map) by implementing tools and platforms that promote interoperability, broad re-use and collaboration.

• Provide enterprise platforms that enable repeatable, discoverable workflows for the creation, analysis and delivery of spatial data.

• Implement or enhance enterprise platforms to allow spatial data workflows to be moved to HPC or cloud environments with a minimum of redevelopment.

• Improve internal and external data discovery by developing processes that allow spatial professionals to self-publish curated content as a BAU activity.

ICT Strategies to Manage and Curate Geoscience Australia’s Data

• Provide guidance, advice and an agency wide framework for the management, governance, and curation of Geoscience Australia’s scientific data.

• Track, lead, and participate in the development of new national and international data standards. Ensure the implementation of these standards in order to promote the maximum use, reuse and repurposing of Geoscience Australia’s scientific data.

• Support and facilitate management of the full data life cycle from initial acquisition to release as a data product including metadata capture, data architecture, and where appropriate, workflow engines and provenance services. Implementation of Geoscience Australia’s data management policies and procedures will be independent of the physical location of the data, e.g. at Geoscience Australia, in High Performance Computation facilities, or in the cloud.

• Manage data to recognise the long term value of the data, rather than the short term goals of individual software applications.

ICT Strategies to Improve and Enhance Data Accessibility • Enable online discovery, access to, interoperability and use of Geoscience Australia data through

the use of international data and metadata standards, semantic data models and Linked Data methodologies.

• Facilitate access to Geoscience Australia data by anyone, anything (machine to machine), anywhere, anytime, on any device using standardised and managed web services and web service architectures that comply with international data transfer standards and schemas. This will maximise the use and access of Geoscience Australia’s scientific data by providing interfaces for external portals and web applications.

• Facilitate and develop information visualisation and interaction on demand for community information and decision support, through multimedia and high-powered graphics processors on the desktop, laptop and (increasingly) other mobile devices.

• Integrate Geoscience Australia’s scientific and spatial data into Australia’s Open Data Network through support for national data portals and catalogue architecture.


ICT Strategies to Optimise and Modernise Geoscience Australia’s Operational ICT Capabilities, Systems and Support

• Implement the initiatives contained in a Service Transformation Program to: − Provide self-service capability to a highly ICT literate user base. − Rationalise ICT so it can service multiple use cases and applications. − Provide infrastructure services to applications and data across a range of infrastructure

platforms. − Provide for the experimental and rapid prototyping aspect of software use for staff – through

improvements and greater uptake of self-service virtual cloud environments – and transfer to business as usual services.

− Provide for a larger volume of smaller projects with numerous small, rapidly changing applications.

− Adapt planning and budgeting horizons to short and iterative cycles as ICT adapts long term plans for a faster response.

− Increase reliability and robustness of critical systems and harden data input streams from the field via instruments.

• Design, develop and manage systems that are fit-for-purpose and cost-effective over their lifetime - inception through to decommissioning.

• Continue to modernise existing Geoscience Australia ICT systems including out-of-date and near end-of-life operating environments.

• Embed advances in eResearch exemplar activities, such as high performance computing and high performance data, into business as usual and operational environments.

3.2 People This strategy signals significant change to both the technical ecosystem and the way in which users consume ICT services. It is vital that there is strategic readiness for this and that Geoscience Australia manage expectations of implementation and the workforce changes required to deliver in this growing and increasingly complex ecosystem.

Staff readiness is seen as a critical success factor. It will involve the need to reduce some capability, create some new capability, and change the balance of others. To achieve the cultural change, workforce planning, an agreed set of ICT values and considerable staff engagement in the process of any transition is required.

Geoscience Australia has a highly ICT literate workforce across the breadth of the organisation, and will increasingly share responsibility for choice and management of technology choices. Leverage of the broad base of ICT skills housed across Geoscience Australia will accelerate collaboration, innovation and must be included in the workforce planning.

Geoscience Australia will empower ICT staff to take ownership of their work, embrace change, make informed decisions, work collaboratively and have the right skills.


3.3 Progress Since the inaugural 2010 version of Geoscience Australia’s ICT Strategy, the agency has addressed key fundamentals, including implementing the Geoscience Australia ICT Task Force 2009 recommendations on strategy, governance and architecture; and has formalised the relationship between Geoscience Australia enterprise planning and ICT investment.

In addition, progress has been made since the last version of this strategy across a more broad sub-set of strategic activity that includes:

• Re-architecture of the entire Geoscience Australia technical environment to better position the agency to expand beyond its boundaries into research and cloud-based environments.

• Baseline of security architecture and patterns for operation that streamline the process of implementing new systems.

• Implementation of a formal ‘Geoinformatics and Data Services’ capability to drive the implementation of HPC/HPD Science and data stewardship services.

• Implementation of a formal ‘Brokerage and Architecture’ capability to facilitate the integration of Geoscience Australia ICT services across boundaries.

• Restructure of the internal ICT function to better coordinate ICT operations and support.

• Architecture and implementation of major data collaboration projects across government science agencies in partnership with the science divisions.

• Leadership in conceptual innovation of the Australian Government Open Data Network and development of enabling technology and services.

• Data cube development in partnership with the science divisions and the NCI.

• Upgrades of mission critical systems.

• Migration of base systems to a secure third party commercial data centre for disaster recovery.

• Transition to a shared secure Internet Gateway through the whole-of-government program that will deliver greater opportunities to enable Geoscience Australia data services.

• Further development of internal software development capability.

• Incorporation of the Research Data Storage Infrastructure into Geoscience Australia data storage architecture.

• Proof of concept projects for the use of commercial cloud services.

• Successful development of eResearch virtual laboratories, now being applied to production use cases.

• Piloting and implementation of new platforms for spatial data management, processing and delivery.

• Consolidation of database technologies.

• Implementation of a software management system.

• Growth of high performance computing services from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI).

• Implementation of a modern set of ICT systems including mobile device management, BYO device and internal wireless capability.

• Increased adoption of automation in testing, deployment and configuration.

• Increased use of well managed cloud solutions.


3.4 Roadmaps The Geoscience Australia ICT Strategy is underpinned by a set of roadmaps that provide the annual detail of the activities that will contribute to the delivery of the Geoscience Australia ICT vision. The roadmaps are aligned to the annual Geoscience Australia work plan and are measured through an entity-wide monitoring and reporting process. The roadmaps are inclusive of:

• Data Services

• Infrastructure

• Software and Applications

• Service Delivery

• HPC/HPD

• Architecture

Key additional annual performance measures will include:

Objective Measures

More Scalable, Agile ICT Capability

• Self-service uptake • Time to market for new projects • Staff satisfaction – through request for feedback

Improved Access to ICT and Data

• Improved online discovery and access to data and information • Remote access usage • New customers • Customer satisfaction

Better End User Experience

• Adherence to relevant technical standards • Improved data interoperability, quality and transparency • Improved productivity • Staff satisfaction

Effective Operations • Progress against the annual Geoscience Australia ICT Work Plan; • Formal half-yearly feedback from the Divisions and Corporate; • Improved morale of ICT staff and reduced turnover. • Feedback from the Geoscience Australia Executive Board, ICT Steering

Committee, Divisional Information Officers, communities of practice and external collaborators;

• Risk assessment – quarterly assessment of ICT risks under the Geoscience Australia Risk Framework;

• Monthly budgetary performance metrics; • Monthly ICT performance metrics – feedback, response, service uptime


Documents

Information and Communications Technology Strategy 2014-2017