2020-21 Departmental Plan: Status report on transformational and major Crown projects

The EVAS project will implement a new, competitively procured, standard endpoint security solution that will provide an accurate and up-to-date view of all Shared Services Canada (SSC)/Government of Canada (GC) endpoint devices. EVAS will allow SSC partners, as well as GC customers and enterprise service organizations, to ensure endpoint devices on SSC/GC networks are properly tracked, managed and secured.

Customers will be equipped with real-time information to prioritize remediation efforts, and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) will be equipped with an enterprise view of IT assets to be able to assess true GC exposure to a cyberattack.

• Increase visibility and awareness to improve IT security
• Detect and resolve cyber incidents with minimal human intervention
• Current and comprehensive understanding of all endpoint devices on SSC/GC networks
• Improve IT business planning and forecasting
• Streamline operations with an enterprise solution
• Reduce SSC/GC enterprise risks

Engage industry, refine requirements and conduct competitive procurement for integrated EVAS system(s) and licenses.

• Communications Security Establishment
• Shared Services Canada
• Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

• Phase 1 – Idea Generation – March 2018
• Phase 2 – Initiation – December 2018
• Phase 3 – Planning – March 2021
• Phase 4 – Operational Readiness – July 2021
• Phase 5 – Deployment – April 2024
• Phase 6 – Closeout – September 2024

EVAS is a pathfinder project for the Cyber Security Procurement Vehicle (CSPV). There is a 5 month delay in the schedule to complete the Planning Phase due to required reviews and approvals, as well as issuance and evaluation timelines of the Initial Invitation To Compete (ITC). The EVAS project target completion date is September 2024. Project is currently within budget.

Stream 1: National Internet Protocol (IP)

• Consolidation of approximately 50 different WANs on 12 separate contracts into a single infrastructure on 2 contracts to provide national WAN services to SSC’s partners
• IP-based service providing any-to-any network connectivity
• Fully-managed service to 3,500+ sites across Canada

Stream 2: National Transport (Legacy)

• Legacy point-to-point analog and digital services (700+ sites)

Stream 3: International

• Both IP and Transport services
• Service to approximately 220 locations internationally

Stream 1 (Contractor 1) – TELUS
257 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P0A6

Stream 1 (Contractor 2) – Zayo Canada
150 Laurier Avenue West, 3rd floor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P5J4

Stream 2 – TELUS
257 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P0A6

Stream 3 – Bell Canada
160 Elgin Street, 5th floor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P2C4

• Phase 1 – Idea Generation – August 2013
• Phase 2 – Initiation – October 2013
• Phase 3 – Planning – August 2017
• Phase 4 – Operational Readiness – August 2017
• Phase 5 – Deployment – January 2020 (behind schedule)
• Phase 6 – Closeout – March 2020 (behind schedule)

The overall project health is “red” to indicate that there are risks due to slippage in the overall schedule. The cumulative effect of various issues and risks that have led to the delays in the Stream 1 migration schedule.

Stream 2 – Forecast completion date is 31 March 2020.

Stream 3 – Forecast completion date is 30 September 2020.

• The GCNet WAN Project is currently scheduled to be completed by March 2020 but will be seeking TB approval to extend the Authorities to March 2022 (to accommodate the Stream 1 migration schedule)
• The GCNet WAN Project is achieving defined performance objectives with an average migration rate of 60 circuits /month
• The GCNet WAN Project is currently running “on” budget but will require some additional funding in its final year. This will be requested concurrently with the extended project authorities in the upcoming TB Submission

The GCSI project’s duration is six years with the first 18 months devoted to planning activities. The estimated expanded sites and additional capabilities include adding 2000 users, 900 endpoints, 60 sites across the Government of Canada (GC) and 60 secure meeting rooms with voice and video conferencing up to SECRET. In addition to expanding new sites, new capabilities include high availability, low-to-high notifications and 24/7 support.

The project aims to achieve the following business outcomes:

• GC will have easy access to communicate securely using enterprise secure communications services, minimizing the need to use unmanaged legacy networks and unsecure means
• GC workers will have access to real-time classified (SECRET) communication tools to support operational needs including during times of crisis
• GC will be able to host classified (SECRET) mission-critical services that must be always available
• Deliver an infrastructure system that can resist a data center level disaster

• Communications Security Establishment
• Shared Services Canada
• Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

• Phase 1 – Idea Generation – March 2018
• Phase 2 – Initiation – December 2018
• Phase 3 – Planning – October 2020
• Phase 4 – Operational Readiness – April 2023
• Phase 5 – Deployment – February 2024
• Phase 6 – Closeout – March 2024

• The GCSI Expansion is achieving defined performance objectives
• The GCSI Expansion is not running on budget, due to:
  • The extension of the project timeline for Gate 3 readiness, along with increased SSC facility (Skyline) and Proof of Concept costs, thus impacting/reducing project contingency
• Gate 3 date has been moved from June 2020 to October 2020

The Secure Cloud Enablement and Defence (SCED) project was initiated to address the cybersecurity risks involved in enabling Protected B Medium Integrity, Medium Availability (PBMM) data and workloads to be migrated from on premise government data centres to public cloud environments. The SCED project will focus on maintaining the current security posture of GC assets and data as they are deployed in public cloud environments, and provide improved availability with direct, dedicated network connections between GC-approved Cloud Service Providers (CSP) with on premise GC services and data centres.

The project will help the GC maintain its visibility of the information stored, processed and transmitted when using cloud-based services. Once implemented, the new service will support a target-state cloud architecture that provides the GC with an adaptive and resilient environment supported by Communications Security Establishment (CSE) defensive services.

The security posture of GC services and assets as they are deployed in the public cloud and integrated with on premise GC enterprise systems will be maintained through:

• Full visibility and monitoring of GC cloud environments through integration into current monitoring and management services for the GC enterprise provided by the Security Operations Centre (SOC)
• A reduced attack surface by consolidating cloud perimeters
• Secure access from GC network to public cloud
• Central cloud-enabled data loss prevention policies
• Improved end-to-end cloud connectivity reliability, and mitigations against single points of failure

Private sector Cloud Service Provider (CSP) vendors will be able to provide goods and services to the GC departments.  This will allow GC departments to leverage cloud capacity to be more agile and flexible in providing services to the Canadian public and businesses.

• Communications Security Establishment
• Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
• Shared Services Canada

• Phase 1 – Idea Generation – April 2018
• Phase 2 – Initiation – February 2019
• Phase 3 – Planning – April 2020
• Phase 4 – Operational Readiness – June 2020
• Phase 5 – Deployment – October 2021
• Phase 6 – Closeout – March 2022

• The SCED project is seeking amended Project Approval as well as Financial and Expenditure Authorities from Treasury Board for the implementation phase of the SCED project in April 2020
• The SCED project is to be completed by March 2022
• The project is on track for onboarding the pathfinder departments starting April 1, 2020