The 2015 launched billion dollar “IT Consolidation Bund” initiative is now set to slowly take off this year after many setbacks take up. The federal government has decided on a “sequence plan”, according to which from April 69 projects for an upgrade of the IT -Infrastructures in 69 ministries and authorities in four waves up to 2028 should be carried out.

Common programs in the cloud The aim of the large-scale project is, according to the original heise online and published in excerpts by Netzpolitik.org, server-side IT solutions for the offices involved on standardized servers of the Federal Information Technology Center (ITZBund) in the “Infrastructure as a Service “(IaaS). In other words: Common services and programs, for example for word processing or spreadsheets, as well as specialized procedures that are difficult to convert, are to be obtained from the cloud in the future , but still manageable size of around 130. 000 Jobs and 30. 000 Server. What makes harmonization so complicated, according to the authors: “In each individual authority it is necessary to create the technical and organizational prerequisites for a successful consolidation, individually tailored, to develop and implement the new IaaS target images.”

The planned “IT operational consolidation federal” (BKB) is an “important and large project of the federal government with a significant contribution to IT security and digitization” of the public administration, writes the Federal Ministry of Finance. It had taken over the project management at the end 2019, who was initially in the internal department. The Federal Chancellery is responsible for coordination, to which 2015 the government’s IT council has also moved from the Ministry of the Interior.

Failure forecast In the middle of last year, the finance department had a pessimistic interim conclusion of the 2015 Achieved drawn. In many cases, “because of the high costs”, there were doubts about participating in the project at all, it was said at the time. The effects of the corona pandemic created additional burdens in the IT departments. “This, as well as repeated public criticism,” could endanger the operational readiness of the houses. “A lack of acceptance” is likely to lead to the “failure of consolidation”.

The IT Council as a steering committee on 10. Endorsed December and on 28. The house of CFO Olaf Scholz (SPD) sees the timetable sent to the Bundestag as an “important milestone”. “Realistic and resilient planning” is the key requirement for making the initiative a success after all. The further procedure and the technical criteria to be assessed were therefore coordinated with those involved. These include, for example, the nature of the government’s IT, the project capability of the institution and questions about “mandatory technical or other dependencies” for the start of an upgrade.

For example, those responsible would have “already planned replacement of large specialist procedures “or a” reorganization of IT in authorities “included. “The planned new construction and acquisition of properties” and the associated network connections as well as the “ongoing burden” of individual offices in coping with the corona crisis would also be taken into account. A relevant evaluation scheme is not included with the report.

Several waves planned Basically, an authority project should now be “within a term of three calendar years “. This includes a three-month initialization phase and a maximum of one year preparation phase. Then two years should be available for the implementation.

It will start in the context of the 1st wave according to the overview, which should be “regularly validated and updated”, between spring 2021 and 2021 among others with the Chancellery, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure , the economic department and important subordinate authorities. The Ministries of the Interior, Justice and Environment are planned for the 2nd wave, which runs until the end of 2024.

Between 2024 and 2027 should include the departments for work, family and health as well larger authorities such as the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and the Federal Network Agency. The Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is the last point in the 4th wave in the outline, together with the German Patent and Trademark Office, for example. The IT at the Federal Police with around 30. 000 employees as well as at the Directorate-General for Waterways and Shipping should be consolidated over three or two waves “with an individually agreed, longer term”. Some things are still unclear The Ministry of Finance itself does not appear in the list. It is also unclear what will happen to the remaining unlisted offices. The original approach was to modernize and standardize the operating systems and computer workstations of all 180 ministries and authorities of the federal administration. The Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, which is actually no longer supported, is currently running in many offices. The federal government alone paid around for the necessary special support 2020 800. 000 Euro.

It is also still unclear whether the highest federal courts, the Federal Patent Court and the Federal Public Prosecutor General can be involved. Although capacities are “reserved” for them in the context of the 4th wave, they are provided with a footnote. Accordingly, there are “special requirements” here, since the “constitutional principles of the separation of powers and judicial independence” must be observed. It must first be clarified whether the ITZBund can do this.

The budget expert of the Green parliamentary group, Sven-Christian Kindler, sharply criticizes the slow process. “The federal government wasted an entire year planning a new order for IT consolidation,” he explained to heise online. “If the project continues at this snail’s pace, then it will not be completed 2027. Every week of delay also increases the costs. The entire project is now an indictment for digitization in Germany. ”

At the same time, Kindler reminded that the initiative should actually 2025 be on the home straight. The fact that it is now delayed by at least three more years “is completely unacceptable”. Certainly, the cost limit of 3.4 billion euros will be broken. In the meantime, “technological quantum leaps” have taken place in IT. The coordination difficulties between the three main departments involved are also becoming increasingly apparent. This increases the doubts whether the government is serious about the project.

(mho)