The Government Cloud “1+N+N+1” Innovation Model Becomes a Template

The e-government cloud has made great progress since the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology issued the Guidelines for Top-Level Design of Cloud Computing-based Public E-Government Platforms and deployed local governments to carry out the application pilot work of cloud computing-based public e-government platforms. The e-government cloud, in fact, through centralized deployment, not only can reduce costs and enhance efficiency but, more importantly, can effectively reduce the information islands that have existed for a long time in various government departments through the flexible application of cloud computing and advanced management, thus integrating various systems of e-government and laying a crucial technical foundation for government innovation services.

Obviously, XX province, which is located in western China and has a large economy and population, has long realized the important role of cloud computing in e-government. With the help of emerging information technology, it is expected to rapidly transform government functions, improve the efficiency and standards of management services, and realize government service innovation. For this reason, the XX provincial government established a government cloud leading group to quickly promote the implementation of the XX government cloud.

1+N+N+1: Pioneering an Innovative Construction Model for the Government Cloud

If innovation is any different from the other construction models in the e-government cloud in China, the XX government cloud construction model itself is an innovation.

As is known to all, the construction of various cloud platforms, including government cloud, is not a one-shot deal. It requires continuous regulation, operation, optimization and other work to ensure the high availability of cloud platforms. However, at present, due to the red-hot cloud computing market, cloud computing service providers are inevitably uneven in quality, technologies and service capabilities.

How can we solve these problems? How can we build a reasonable, fully competitive and collaborative management and service architecture for cloud platform construction?

The XX provincial government cloud leading group has innovatively put forward a “1+N+N+1” construction model to resolve regulatory problems from the system framework and to ensure service quality from system construction. The so-called 1+N+N+1 refers to a cloud monitoring platform, multiple cloud service provider platforms, multiple department integration platforms and a cloud disaster recovery platform. The government quantifies the quality of purchased cloud services on the cloud monitoring platform, and the multiple cloud service provider platforms adopt OpenStack, an open international standard to form full and effective competition and select the superior and eliminate the inferior. A qualified department data center (department cloud integration platform) will be transformed and used to effectively guarantee the security of important government data (the cloud disaster recovery platform).

After several rounds of strict screening, the XX provincial government cloud leading group finally determined a cloud monitoring platform provider and two cloud service providers on October 23, 2015, and completed the prototype of the 1+N+N+1 model.

No More than 60 Days: Creating the Construction Speed Legend of the Government Cloud

For government cloud construction, technical ability and implementation experience are of vital importance. This is because the e-government system is complex and involves dozens of service departments and hundreds of service systems. Without strong cloud computing technology capabilities and implementation experience, it is very difficult to perform well in the construction of the government cloud. XX province has a large economy and population. Meanwhile, its information level is at the forefront of the whole country. Information systems are numerous and complex, and service data of various kinds require urgent processing and migration. This is a big challenge for service providers of the government cloud.

In this context, H3C accepted this arduous task. In fact, H3C has rich experience and has made many achievements in government clouds. It has successfully implemented 12 national ministerial-level government clouds, 18 provincial government clouds and more than 200 prefectural, municipal, district-level and county-level government clouds. For two consecutive years from 2015 to 2017, H3C has won the first market share in government clouds and has become a veritable “Top Brand for China Government Cloud Projects.”

It took H3C less than 60 days to complete a preliminary investigation, equipment installation and deployment, platform construction, service system migration, management platform construction, etc. Relying on OpenStack and KVM, H3C launched the overall H3Cloud solution and realized the “one-stop” delivery of cloud-network convergence. It also provides XX with an e-government cloud with full cloud services, including cloud hosts, cloud storage, cloud firewalls, cloud load balancing, a cloud database, cloud auditing, cloud applications and many other value-added functions and services.

To ensure the security of the XX government cloud and the isolation between various committees, offices and bureaus, H3C has consulted the relevant standards for the classified protection of national information systems and cloud computing security, and it has established a complete information security guarantee system for cloud service provider platforms, providing closed-loop management, security operations and maintenance services for the safe operation of government cloud platforms from basic security to cloud security. The first steps for the XX government cloud to achieve its goals are overall planning for the construction of the provincial government cloud platform, the completion of the top-level design of the provincial government cloud, and the initial realization of the co-construction and sharing of the infrastructure of the new government system in the province. With the centralization and intensification of cloud computing, the unified collection, storage and processing of XX government big data resources will be realized to form a big data support system.

In the future, with the construction of the XX provincial government cloud platform, data from various departments such as those for industry, transportation, tourism, environmental protection and e-commerce will be stored on one platform, so as to achieve the “interworking, sharing and opening” of provincial government data resources, effectively realizing the high efficiency and unity of e-government services, and promoting the functional transformation of government departments for social regulation and livelihood services.