Service delivery in the urban and rural areas of South Africa can only be effectively enabled through connectivity. What five things should government leaders keep in mind when connecting their departments and branches?
With a wave of public sector digital transformation underway, global government IT spending is expected to total $565.7 billion in 2022, an increase of 5% over 2021, according to technology research and consulting firm Gartner, with additional investments in cloud platforms and Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS).
Catalyzed by the pandemic, governments have committed to accelerating their digital transformation. But Deloitte’s research shows that most government agencies around the world have a long way to go before they can be considered digitally mature. Only 26% of government agencies surveyed in eight countries felt very digitally mature.
Deloitte noted that a government that can evolve from “doing” or “become” digital to “being digital” would significantly improve service delivery and customer experience, enabling universal digital identity, resilient and proactive government operations, and intelligence from real time data.
To move toward the digital government ideal, the public sector must first break down the silos between data warehouses and departments, and connect all of its people, systems, and data with strong, fast, and ultra-secure networks.
South Africa’s public sector is aware of the innovative role of high-speed access: Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni noted in the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies 2022/23 budget vote that Cabinet had approved a revised model and implementation plan for SA Connect Phase 2 program, which aims to achieve universal access by 2024.
In this revised model, Sentech and Broadband InfraCo will work with access network service providers, Internet service providers and mobile virtual network operators to deploy 33,539 community Wi-Fi hotspots, while IT company SITA will provide and will maintain connectivity to 15,691 government sites around the world. next three years.
However, high speed and capacity are not the only considerations when deploying networks to support the digital government of the future.
The following five factors should be considered when connecting South African public sector agencies:
Security and compliance – As the public sector handles personal and sensitive information, security and compliance are crucial. SD-WAN is an immensely powerful tool for simplifying WAN and branch office management and supporting connectivity without compromise. SASE (Secure Access Service Edge): SD-WAN plus Zero Trust Security: Supports access through a simplified cloud-native security service with unified policy enforcement, supporting organizations with multi-cloud requirements.
Fit for Purpose: For fast, resilient, and secure connectivity, FTTB (Fiber for Business) offers speeds of up to 500 Mbps, with low latency and the ability to prioritize certain traffic at peak times. However, while high-speed fiber connections are ideal, they are not always feasible in the most remote regions.
To enhance the customer experience in the branch, a scalable Internet service offers fast, symmetrical speeds supported by ultra-low latency with a number of security options. To support branch offices that do not have fiber networks, fixed wireless access connectivity offers a good alternative for high-speed data and voice traffic. Microwave offers high performance bandwidth of up to 1 Gbps. Another option where conventional network connections are not available is VSAT satellite connectivity, offering speeds of up to 20 Mbps with reliable and robust connectivity, as a hybrid of LTE with a roadmap to 5G providing fee-limited access for backup. and unlimited for primary solutions. BCX’s converged communications portfolio has a multitude of solutions suitable to protect branches and enable compliance as needed.
Connectivity for wireless facilities: For an enhanced user experience and broader coverage, Wi-Fi 6 offers reduced interference, latency and jitter, broader coverage, and shared spectrum among multiple users for better connectivity performance. This solves the problem of wireless signal coverage over long distances to support asset and person tracking for health and security applications, as well as contact tracing.
Resources: Skilled IT resources are hard to come by, challenging efforts to transform the public sector and seize the opportunities presented by the cloud. Managed infrastructure and cloud services offer a solution to this challenge, ensuring that qualified, cost-effective resources are available to each organization to design, deploy, and manage networks, manage information security and disaster recovery, and support development and new initiatives.
Accessibility: e-government is a wasted effort if the majority of citizens cannot afford to access digital services. To allow this, the public sector can access digital services through the sponsored internet at a zero rate, which inversely bills the data used by citizens when accessing e-government platforms.
— Sina Mvoko, Executive Director of the Public Sector, BCX
