How Ready is the Public Sector for the PSN?

MLL Telecom - 24 March 2011

A recent report from Cisco Systems stated that "Some 69 per cent of public sector IT budget holders are aware of the Public Sector Network (PSN), but just 13 per cent are using it." However an article from Computing magazine posited that the potential cost savings from the PSN (government estimates point to £651million) will eventually push public sector organisations to overcome any barriers (security, budget limitations and political inertia) that are preventing them from participating and will eventually adopt it, with 57% doing so within 2 years.

Back in 2009 the results of a study we conducted at MLL Telecom pretty much matched those highlighted in the article. 77% of our respondents for example, saw the differing levels of security needed by each organisation as a difficulty. Guaranteeing fair usage of the network was another issue that kept cropping up.

As a network provider for the public sector we can see significant benefits of adopting the PSN and a shared network. Over the last couple of years we've been working to provide them with a service that overcomes the barriers that public sector bodies have been facing.

Security Issues: shared networks can now be built using MPLS to provide Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to each individual body.

Fair Usage: tackled by QoS, best delivered using IP and MPLS. A network can be managed to pre-agreed policies between all users should congestion occur.

Budget Limitations: Flexible pricing structures are available, combining rental and capex models if necessary.

So if we've overcome the technical barriers it seems the only barrier left is the political will of the organisation to do it. And since we are seeing a number of people who are already building best practice shared networks, it is now only down to the rest to acknowledge the cost savings (we have designed networks with as much as a 25% saving ) they could achieve by embracing a shared network.

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