Upgrading mission-critical IT systems

With more than 130 commonly used federal government services now online, Shared Services Canada’s (SSC) work to modernize the information technology (IT) infrastructure and to keep it reliable and secure is critical, both to the delivery of existing government programs and to the expansion of digital services.

Many of the Government’s existing systems are reaching their end of life and vendors are no longer supporting them. The availability of regular maintenance to sustain some of these systems has also run out. These computers, networks, large-scale printers, storage units and security systems are critical to keeping the operations of government functioning. Breakdowns and network crashes could affect operations in individual organizations across government, resulting in delays in services to Canadians.

Budget 2016 is enabling SSC to restore maintenance and replace the older mission critical systems, including computer servers, disk storage units, security firewalls, telecommunications network devices, and wide area and local area network equipment, thus:

• mitigating the risk of service interruptions and system outages;
• reducing security vulnerabilities;
• facilitating federally supported world-class research and development;
• continuing to support broader government initiatives for growth of the middle class, open and transparent government, a clean environment and a strong economy; and
• reducing the time to restore services in case of failures.

The Budget provides the resources to upgrade critical IT infrastructure while SSC continues with the long-term IT modernization plan, including moving the data centre transformation forward, strengthening the enterprise security controls, and delivering of the wide area and local area networks.

Budget 2016 investments focus on infrastructure to strengthen Canada’s economy. SSC’s infrastructure investments will help make more government services to Canadians ‘digital by default’, and facilitate Canada’s Open Government approach.

For further information:
Media Relations
Shared Services Canada
1-855-215-3656

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