guidelines for migrating to Open Source Software. These have been
written by netproject consultants who have been working together with
the European Commission and representatives from EU member states
including Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Finland and Turkey.
‘The guidelines are based on our practical experience of migrating to
Open Source computing.’ said Eddie Bleasdale, Director, netproject.
‘There is a growing number of organisations who are migrating to Linux
for several reasons including: security; virus free computing;
performance; reliability and the freedom of choice that Open Source
Software offers. These benefits translate into reduced costs.’
The use of Open Source Software is seen by the European Commission as
the technology to enable e-Government. ‘Just as the success of the
Internet and the World Wide Web is due to the exclusive use of Open
Standards – so e-Government and e-Business requires solutions that are
free from any proprietary standards.’.
netproject is currently working with several organisations in both the
public and private sectors who are migrating their IT systems to Linux
and Open Source Software.
For instance netproject has deployed a pilot system at Newham Borough
Council with Linux based desktop computers. These provide secure network
computing. The Linux desktop computers self configure when initially
connected to the network and then automatically self update as new
software is released. Secure sign on is provided using a centralised
authentication server with the option of using smart cards. Secure
remote access to corporate IT systems is achieved using an Open Source
Virtual Private Network (VPN).
‘Open Source Software and Linux in particular offers an opportunity for
organisations to examine their existing IT infrastructure to see how
best it can be re-engineered to meet the demands of secure e-Government
/ e-Business.’ said Eddie Bleasdale. ‘The European Commission’s Open
Source Migration Guidelines provide a proven approach to how best to
engineer these systems.’
For further information contact Eddie Bleasdale.
Email: eddie@netproject.com
Link: europa.eu.int
Category:
- Government
