City Services Delivered Over Mobile Cloud Infrastructure

Busan Metropolitan City launched a center to host a variety of services for its citizens. Operating like an app store for developers, the Busan Mobile Application Development Center (BMAC), marks the first phase of their deployment of Smart+Connected Community (S+CC) services -- in collaboration with Cisco and a local service provider, Korea Telecom (KT).

The plan is part of the Busan Green u-City (ubiquitous city) blueprint, which is in line with the national agenda to support environmentally sustainable economic growth in the country.

Busan, a bustling city of approximately 3.6 million residents, is located on the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula. The second-largest city in South Korea, Busan occupies about 300 square miles (766 square kilometers), 8 percent of the entire Korean peninsula. Busan also has the country's largest container-handling port (fifth largest in the world) -- thanks to its accessibility from the Pacific Ocean, deep harbor and gentle tides.

Cisco Korea and Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) contributed to this blueprint, which includes the rollout of S+CC services such as urban mobility, distance learning, energy management, and safety and security by 2014.

The aim is to transform the way of life for Busan citizens, improve city management, and generate new economic growth in a sustainable environment.

"Busan is an advanced city and among the first to adopt the u-City concept in Korea. Because of its ICT infrastructure, Busan has decided to move faster toward becoming a green u-City. We are pleased to be able to collaborate with Cisco due to its rich experience in a variety of smart city projects," said Hur Nam Sik, mayor of Busan.

Cisco Smart+Connected Communities in Action

BMAC is phase 1 of Busan's Green u-City blueprint. The center will be based on a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) approach, in collaboration with KT and Cisco, for application developers to test and host city services.

Phase 2 will see the rollout of software-as-a-service (SaaS) managed cloud services, delivered by KT and powered by Cisco, such as billing automation, content management and document management by 2012.

Phase 3, planned for 2014, will see these services widely available to all citizens.

BMAC is built on a platform powered by the Cisco Unified Computing System, the Cisco 4500 backbone and SAN switches.

Busan expects the BMAC to act as a catalyst for app developers to make use of public data provided by Busan Metropolitan Government, which will allow them to develop innovative applications that will appeal to the general public and help improve the quality of life.

By providing a shared services development platform and creating an ecosystem for software developers, Busan expects to see new job opportunities in knowledge industries. Busan also plans to have these developers lead phase 2 of its blueprint, the delivery of S+CC cloud services. Read More...

Promoting Innovation and Collaboration in Government with Google Apps

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest blogger is Paul R. Verkuil, the tenth Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent federal agency whose mission is providing expert advice and recommendations to improve the federal government. He was sworn in by Vice President Biden on April 6, 2010. ACUS has just launched a brand new website, acus.gov, which takes advantage of the collaboration capabilities of Google Apps for Government.

The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) is an independent federal agency dedicated to creating a public-private partnership designed to make government work better. ACUS has had a long history of saving the government and taxpayers money. In 2009, ACUS was revived by Congress after a 15-year hiatus to bring creative thinkers together to focus on how innovative technology, transparency, and collaboration can help us improve the operations of our federal government.

To build a 21st century agency, we need 21st century technology. To that end, ACUS has recently developed a new website designed to engage the public and solicit ideas from citizens across the county, using video, social media tools, and more. We have integrated Google Calendar into our site to make information about our public meetings readily accessible.

Bringing together multiple perspectives and a wide variety of ideas in order to arrive at the best solutions is another key to our success. The conference itself includes representatives from 50 federal executive departments, agencies, and independent regulatory boards and commissions, as well as 40 members of the public. We also have a nimble team of 15 staff, who bring their own innovative ideas to our mission.

This week, ACUS just launched a collaborative workspace for members and staff using Google Apps for Government to share documents, calendars and websites. We chose Google Apps because of its intuitive, easy-to-use interface. What’s more, Google Apps’ FISMA certification and accreditation gave us confidence it could meet our security needs.

We’re excited to be delivering new ideas for how to improve government efficiency and to make government less intrusive and costly. The collaboration capabilities from Google Apps will allow us to be a model of effectiveness for those we hope to help.

Posted by Paul R. Verkuil, Chairman, Administrative Conference of the United States Read More...

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks is going Google to improve collaboration and remote access

Today our guest blogger is Ron Kaufman, Director of Information Services for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. We’ll hear from Ron on the benefits his department enjoys by migrating 420 users to Google Apps.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) oversees 26 state parks and a variety of wildlife areas, nature centers, and state fishing lakes with roughly 420 employees. The department supports multiple offices and remote employees such as natural resource officers, field biologists, various biological technicians and others that rely on mobile devices quite frequently to manage state lands and patrol state lakes, survey species and help improve habitats for wildlife. Because many of these employees work in the field, from their homes or vehicles, they are not always in areas where they can plug in a computer and access the Internet easily.

Having used Microsoft Exchange for many years, and then switched to an open source solution for five years, KDWP decided to test a cloud-based solution to improve collaboration and efficiency. We picked Google Apps for its broad capabilities and simplicity to deploy and use. The initial 45 test users were very pleased with the availability of the cloud tool suite. Being able to access files from any web browser and the additional calendaring and global directory functionalities played a big part in the department’s ultimate decision to go Google. Working with Google Apps Partner SADA Systems, KDWP was able to migrate 420 users to the production environment last summer in just two months.

We started to see immediate benefits, even while employees were still learning about Google Apps’ full capabilities. People working from different locations are now able to collaborate easily on the same document or spreadsheet online. We no longer need to mail copies of our budget spreadsheet back and forth by snail mail or as an attachment in email. Using Google Docs and video chat, employees 200 miles apart are able to collaborate as though they’re meeting in person. Since the applications now live in the cloud, meaning they are delivered over the Internet and accessed in a web browser, we worry much less about file size limitations, server downtime, technology upgrades or maintenance issues.

Before the migration, our network administrator was spending 20% of his time on maintaining email servers and clients. That has been cut down to roughly 5%, a considerable time savings. Our IT can now focus on more meaningful initiatives.

Posted by Ron Kaufman, Director of Information Services for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks Read More...