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Mark Jones: Richard Host, thanks for joining us.
Richard Host: It's a pleasure.
Mark Jones: Now, we're actually sitting in one of Australia's oldest fire stations, which is quite a contrast to a lot of the new work that you've been doing.
Richard Host: That's for sure.
Mark Jones: Start by telling us a little bit about the recent project you've had around the operational centres.
Richard Host: Well, we've spent three to four years upgrading our computerised despatch system, which is the system that takes the 000 calls. We've gone from four centres to two - a much more sophisticated system. People can respond faster and it will take into account automatic vehicle location, so we'll be able to send the closest vehicle and we'll save lives.
Mark Jones: What's been the driving force behind the upgrades?
Richard Host: Well, it's all about saving lives and it's also a platform for the future; so all the emergency services will be using the system. Through it we'll be able to send the closest vehicles, the best crews, as fast as we possibly can.
Mark Jones: Tell me about the network infrastructure that's behind it.
Richard Host: Well, we have many layers of redundancy, as you can imagine; on power and on data networks; diverse path MPLS backed up by fibre, backed up by satellite, backed up by radio, backed up by everything; lots of backup to the power. We absolutely have to be able to take the calls.
Mark Jones: What does it take, from your perspective, to make sure all of those backup systems work across the network?
Richard Host: Well, what we do is we periodically can swap from one data centre to the other, so we're testing our disaster recovery all the time. So we actually test all the different components in - we also have a DR site. So we're testing, periodically, all the different components, so we're never going to be surprised if we have to use it.
Mark Jones: Tell me about the networks themselves. How have you made decisions about what's the best type of network to use?
Richard Host: Well, at the moment our fire stations run on ADSL2, which is excellent. That's backed up by 3G. We actually dispatch by satellite, so even if the town got completely cut off we could still ring those bells and the crews go out.
Mark Jones: How many people in the organisation are you looking after?
Richard Host: In Fire and Rescue there's 13,000 people, of which 7000 are volunteers. Fire and Rescue also supports the whole emergency services sector. There's 95,000 people in that.
Mark Jones: Tell me about the Google Chromebox. What are you doing there?
Richard Host: Well, this is really good. We're deploying Google Chromeboxes, which look like PCs for all intents and purposes. They smell like PCs, but they're an awful lot faster - instant [], considerably cheaper, very, very fast. As a consequence we think that they will replace a lot of PCs out in the fire stations.
Mark Jones: They're a network device, aren’t they? So what implications does that have for your networks?
Richard Host: Well, what it means is the network has to be up. So that's why we have redundant networks everywhere. I think that's the way things are going. There's almost nothing that you can do these days, unless you're doing a PowerPoint or a Word document, that doesn't need the network. So our emphasis, moving forward, is to have more resilient and faster networks. Whether you've got a tablet device or a Google Chromebox or just about anything you have to be connected.
Mark Jones: Security is, clearly, very important when you're running a large, complex network [like] this. What steps have you undertaken to make sure that everything is as it should be?
Richard Host: Well, security is, of course, very important for an emergency service. With “bring your own device” it's becoming increasingly more complex. We've attained ISO 27001 security certification, which has brought along a lot of process improvement.
We do make sure that no-one can actually connect to our network unless we've checked out their device.
Mark Jones: You mentioned to me that you're rolling out some iPads as well, testing those in the organisation.
Richard Host: Yes.
Mark Jones: How do you secure those?
Richard Host: How do we secure those? Well, they come in through a Telstra private network, so they never actually touch the internet, so it's very secure.
Mark Jones: You've come from the private sector and you're now, obviously, in the public sector. What's your advice to other CIOs and people in your position who deal with a large organisation like this and have to get things done?
Richard Host: Well, when I came to the public service it just seemed like people had artificial barriers in their mind; that they couldn’t actually do the things they wanted to do. So the first thing I did was I convinced people that those barriers didn't actually exist and enabled them to do these projects.
Of course, these projects are - lots of low hanging fruit - where this hadn’t been done, under investment; huge win-win situations. So I think people just need to be convinced that it's a great idea, it can save money, improve capability, and why wouldn’t they agree to it?
Mark Jones: Cloud computing's a big part of that story too. What are the other agencies looking for when they see what you're doing?
Richard Host: Well, for them to on-board, let's say, onto our SAP system, will cost them half as much as if they try to do it themselves. That's a huge win for them. They can do the project in half the time, a huge win for them.
Internally, we're looking at cloud solutions. So we're looking at moving our email into the cloud. That will be extremely cost effective. It will take a lot of the traffic out of our organisation, give us a higher resilience; so lots of very exciting things in that area.
Mark Jones: I know, for a lot of government agencies, there's a mandate to know where the data is and to secure that in Australia. How do you deal with that situation?
Richard Host: Yes, well that's a very interesting question. So, initially, people said oh, you can't put stuff in the cloud; no, you can't put stuff overseas, the Government will never allow that. Actually, what it boiled down to is two fundamental things. One is you must retain emails that are associated with doing business - those are called records - and you have to know where they are and they have to be stored securely.
The second thing is inside those records are people's private information. You're required to make sure that it stays private and doesn't fall into the wrong hands. As long as you can do those two things you're right.
So I hired a bunch of legal people. They went out and developed a compliance register as to all the legislation that could possibly have anything to do with cloud computing - because there is not text book on this. There is no black and white answer as to what you can and cannot do at this point.
So we then compared the different cloud solutions with that compliance register, and we found that, in fact, we can do it. One of the things we're doing for email - which is interesting - is that we're archiving all the email back into our data centre, so it's journaling back. So actually we will have a copy of it all in our jurisdiction. Or, maybe, that's the original and the copy is actually overseas.
Mark Jones: Who can tell?
Richard Host: As far as I can tell we adhere to all the requirements that Government needs. As a result we'll have a solution that is adding incredible value. It's cheaper, it's faster, it's better. Everyone gets 25 gig mail boxes. Our active directory is authenticated - federated with the cloud, so we have full control. We still have automatic provisioning out of our HR system, so it's absolutely fantastic. I'm very excited about it.
Mark Jones: Clearly. What kind of impact is that having across the different Government departments because, clearly, that's quite a game changer or, at least, perhaps, a change in paradigm for a lot of other Government CIOs?
Richard Host: Well, some CIOs say yes, bring it on; yes, we're thinking about it too. There's a couple that say oh, I don’t think my organisation could handle that. When you actually ask them why, they go oh, I just don't think they could deal with the concept of it being in a public cloud or overseas.
So Government is tackling that but, as you're probably aware, the New South Wales ICT plan absolutely supports the idea of cloud computing. So I've got a lot of support there for moving forward.
Mark Jones: Richard Host, CIO at Fire and Rescue New South Wales, thanks for joining us.
Richard Host: Thanks Mark.
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