Quebec has delayed the transfer of Quebecers’ data to Amazon and Microsoft clouds by two years, despite the expected annual savings of $100 million, due to opposition to changes in government organizations.
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In 2019, former Treasury Board President Christian Dubé and then-Ministerial Delegate for Digital Transformation Éric Caire pledged that they would save $100 million annually “within three years” by moving Quebecers’ information into the Cloud provide by Amazon and Microsoft.
A decree had been issued stating that data center consolidation should be completed by March 31, 2023. This execution phase was expected to cost $155.9 million.
Three years later, only five organizations have made their digital transition while there are over 120 agencies and departments.
Cybersecurity and Digital Minister (MCN), Éric Caire, has been repeating for years that current data centers are outdated and putting Quebecers’ information at risk.
“The current situation in Quebec is at risk (…) There are security breaches,” he said in April 2019 to justify the consolidation project.
Overall, Quebec wanted to quickly eliminate the 457 computer processing centers that host our data.
New Decree
But in June 2020, without fanfare and amid the health restrictions associated with the pandemic, Quebec drafted a second decree to include the health and education networks in this transformation.
The budget thus increased from 155.9 million US dollars to 324.3 million US dollars.
This new amount includes the creation of a Quebec cloud where 40% of the data considered the most sensitive will be found.
Quebec took the opportunity to give all organizations more time as the original deadline would not be met. You now have until December 31, 2025 to complete this digital transformation.
Difficult
CMN felt that change management and organizations’ ability to get the job done required more time. The same applies to learning related to employee use of technology.
The ministry adds that “the labor shortage in the field of information technology has an impact on the implementation of the project”.
According to sources confided in our parliamentary office, several organizations that are very reluctant to make changes may not comply with the new decree.
“Turnover and staff shortages are delaying implementation,” regrets a source close to the file.
“These are important changes that need to be made to get everyone on board,” said Minister Caire’s spokeswoman Nathalie St-Pierre.
DATA CENTER CONSOLIDATION
57% worked with the departments and committees
42% in education
Only 11.4% in the health network
5 over 120 organizations have completed the transformation
- Ministry of Tourism
- Office for Public Hearings on the Environment
- National Institute of Mining
- Quebec Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts
- Society of the Great Theater of Quebec
Source: Department of Cybersecurity and Digital
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