The first phase of the £60m Government Secure Intranet
project has been completed more than a year ahead of schedule,
giving 350,000 public sector workers from more than 150 government
departments access to a common network.
Networks company Energis announced it had completed the
migration of 350,000 government staff to the new GSi intranet last
month, 15 months ahead of its 2007 deadline.
The value of the original £40m contract with Energis has
increased by 50% to cover the need for increased capacity,
including a doubling of bandwidth.
The GSi, which is already handling more than a million e-mails a
day, will act as a common communications network for 154 central
government departments, with comprehensive security for information
sharing and 100% availability for all users.
GSi is designed to offer a technical platform for more joined-up
government, allowing users to share data with any other
organisation in the same GSi community via its peer-to-peer
infrastructure.
It also has peer-to-peer connections into the Criminal Justice
Exchange, Ministry of Defence, NHSNet, EU Council of Ministers and
TESTA European governments networks, allowing sensitive information
to be exchanged without relying on the internet.
The network is also voice-ready, allowing government departments
to plan ahead for the future roll out of VoIP systems.
A spokesperson for the OGCbuying.solutions government agency
said, “We’re very pleased at the work, and the teamwork in
particular, that has contributed to getting this project
successfully completed ahead of deadline. GSi is now the primary
information sharing hub for the entire public sector.”