Railway Directorate the first public agency in Norway to run completely in the cloud

The newly established Norwegian Railway Directorate has chosen to use IT solutions that are 100 percent cloud-based. With the decision, the agency is breaking new ground as public agencies in Norway have been hesitant to utilise cloud-based solutions. The goal is to make operations more efficient and suited to modern working processes, while also fulfilling the government’s strategy for cloud-based services and formal legal requirements.

The relatively low degree of cloud utilisation in Norwegian public agencies is mainly due to perceived limitations in current legislation regarding for example archiving regulations. Despite these challenges, the directorate has chosen to use cloud-based solutions offered by Tieto.

“Since we are a new directorate, we have the advantage of being able to think ahead without taking into account any legacy or old solutions. The question isn’t about if the public sector should use cloud solutions or not, but when this will be realised. This sets high demands both for us and our suppliers. Tieto has gone the extra mile to deliver standardised, cloud-based solutions which comply with current legislation,” says Ståle Hagen, Department Head and Project Manager at the Norwegian Railway Directorate.

The aim of the directorate is to facilitate better organisation of the Norwegian railway sector in order to create more efficient operations and better customer orientation. The directorate comprises around 250 employees, but only one of these works in ICT. By opting for cloud-based services, the directorate is guaranteed improved cost efficiency, security, scalability and flexibility when compared with traditional solutions.  

“We are proud to be taking the government’s digitalisation strategy seriously, and we hope we can inspire other public agencies to take the final step into the cloud. All our functions run in the cloud, including our switchboard and printer server. We are now well positioned to promote digital job satisfaction, support working process, and engaging our users,” says Hagen.  

The Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation (Kommunal- og moderniseringsdepartementet) presented its National Strategy for the Use of Cloud Services in the spring of 2015. One important measure in the strategy was the revision of the Archive Regulations, particularly in terms of evaluating whether the public sector can make use of cloud-based services outside of Norway for the storage of archives. In the proposal, the possibility of storage outside of Norway is included, making it possible for public agencies to truly reap the benefits of scale made available by international operators and their cloud services.

“We are very excited about the fact that the Norwegian Railway Directorate has taken the big leap into the cloud at this stage. Together with our partners we can create cloud-based solutions which are fully compliant with current security considerations and local legislation. The directorate’s decision is future-oriented and innovative, and we hope that other public organisations will be inspired to rethink their approach and renew their operations in a similar way”, says Mats Brandt, Vice President, Public Sector, Tieto.

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