Delivering world-class IT services

The Government of Canada created Shared Services Canada (SSC) in 2011 to transform how the government delivers information technology (IT) infrastructure — the backbone of programs and services that Canadians rely on every day. Each time Canadians cross the border, check the weather or file their taxes, SSC is there working behind the scenes.

Here are a few cool facts about this department and how it supports Canadians:

  • Digital focused: SSC is the only federal government department whose core business is IT
  • Client focused: SSC supports 43 partners, including SSC. This means that employees have the opportunity to support a variety of organizations with different mandates.

In every corner of the world, you will find SSC. For example, SSC works with:

  • Global Affairs Canada in establishing IT infrastructure for missions around the world
  • National Research Council (NRC), Department of National Defence (DND), Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), and others for satellite services in remote areas of northern Canada; as well as
  • Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for in-car cameras in some regions

Interesting projects

From supercomputers to accessible technologies and mobile IT… SSC plays on the leading edge. Here are a few examples of our projects:

Supercomputers

At SSC, employees work with supercomputers — the fastest computers on earth. SSC’s new supercomputing capacity can compute 2.4 quadrillion calculations per second. They could theoretically transmit over one million high-definition movies an hour. With these supercomputers, SSC helps the Government of Canada provide scientific analyses for the development of climate change policies; model marine ecosystems for sustainability and oil spill prevention; and create lifesaving weather forecasts, alerts and warnings.

Space missions

SSC is part of the Canadian Space Agency’s missions during space operations and provides back-up support to NASA, as well as the Canadarm and RADARSAT-2.

Equipped to deliver service to Canadians

SSC also has push-to-talk devices, satellite phones and devices that enable the Government of Canada to deploy mobile offices anywhere around the world. And our new Cloud Brokering Service allows our customers to review, purchase and use public cloud services, making it easier to build new IT applications for digital services and programs for Canadians. Also, our new secure Wi-Fi service is now available in over 8,000 service points, allowing Government employees to connect remotely when visiting other departments. Canadians can now also connect at public Government locations, such as service centres.

Science network

SSC is building a Government of Canada dedicated high-speed science network to collaborate on science work across government, educational institutions and the private sector. This is expected to accelerate the pace of Canadian-based discoveries to unprecedented levels.

Critical role that SSC plays

When you cross the border, when you apply for federal social benefits, when you look to government for national initiatives such as making a home for Syrian refugees and dealing with emergencies, such as the tornadoes in the National Capital Region, SSC is there, providing reliable and secure systems to connect Canadians to their government.

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