Developing digital resilience

Petra Jenner at Splunk argues that better IT resilience is key to the UK government’s AI ambitions

 

Across the years the UK has had a good track record on innovation. The mechanisation of the steam engine, computers, and the world’s first roll out of the internet - over time the UK has frequently been at the forefront of developing technologies that have changed the world. 

 

The UK’s commitment to innovation was recently demonstrated at Bletchley Park, the birthplace of computing. Here the Deputy Prime Minister outlined how Artificial Intelligence is beginning to revolutionise the heart of government, enabling faster decision-making, and delivering better public services.

 

One of the places the benefits of AI are being felt, for example, is the NHS. AI is being used to better-detect the severity of patient’s illnesses, identifying the most vulnerable ahead of the winter. This could play a vital role in alleviating the pressures on GPs and A&Es. 

 

However, despite its great potential, the utilisation of AI in government will require systems to be resilient, featuring high levels of uptime and reliability. 

 

‘Digital Resilience’, in this context, can be thought of as referring to the ability of government digital systems (and in particular those facing the public) to remain active and capable of discharging their duties.

 

Broadly, downtime can be avoided through holistic approaches such as ensuring high visibility of systems and good understanding of digital assets, effective collaboration between teams, and simplification and harmonisation of systems where possible.

 

Research from Splunk and WPI Economics has found that, on average, government IT systems go down for a not-insignificant 10 days a year, demonstrating a low level of digital resilience. These systems are growing in scale and complexity and demand from citizens is increasing.

 

As the Government seeks to use AI to improve public sector productivity we would argue that without having a solid foundation of digital resilience, the public sector will not be able to achieve this. 

 

Disruption can be the result of simple IT flaws, traffic spikes, outages, or operational/human error. The Government’s digital infrastructure, like that of many other large organisations, will naturally sometimes suffer from poor data quality, legacy IT systems, or overly complex implementations.

 

Disruptions can also be due to cyber-security issues. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSS), part of GCHQ, recorded a 64% increase in cyber-attacks this year, with several incidents causing sustained disruption to critical infrastructure.

 

The need for better cross-departmental coordination and support to manage potential cyber-threats within government has been acknowledged in the establishment of a new Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GCCC), tasked with coordinating cyber-security efforts across the public sector.

 

Some departments, such as the NHS, are now beginning to implement a systems-wide approach, training staff in how to use relevant platforms, and requiring integrated care systems to onboard safety recommendations from central bodies such as NHS Digital.

 

However, whilst there is a Government Cyber Strategy there is still no overall government strategy for how to improve digital resilience.

 

The Government’s digital landscape also remains incredibly complex. Many IT systems were built several decades ago and are often a key source of inefficiency and security breaches. For example, in the Department for Work and Pensions, the system that manages records of people in receipt of state pension and/or pension credit, was installed in 1988.

 

The reliance on costly, and outdated systems to perform critical functions only weakens the ability to deliver secure services and, again, arguably stands as a hindrance to the government’s AI ambitions.

 

Then there’s the skills deficit across the public sector. At an individual departmental level, there are still too few officials with the necessary digital skills. According to the National Audit Office, only 4% of civil servants are digital professionals, compared with an industry average of between 8% and 12%. 

 

Naturally the government isn’t unaware of these issues. The good news is the Cabinet Office created the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO), which leads the digital function across the government, and published a ‘digital roadmap’ to address some of the underlying digital problems many departments face. 

 

So how can the UK continue its world-leading approach to innovation?

 

Firstly, the UK must strengthen the public sector’s digital foundations. This includes upskilling public sector workers and filling digital vacancies. The CDDO has already said training for all civil servants is a priority in the next year. In order to reap the enormous benefits of new and emerging technologies, the government must address the skills deficit.

 

As well, the UK should adopt a national ‘digital resilience’ strategy, to align and bolster the existing cyber-security strategies already in place. This should map current digital systems to understand bottlenecks and potential weak points.

 

This map should then be built upon by simplifying systems and enabling collaboration wherever possible, employing a whole government approach.

 

Lastly, and more tactically, the government must ensure it has capable technology in place to monitor, anticipate, identify, triage, and resolve issues in real-time, as they emerge - no mean feat given the scale and dispersed nature of governmental IT systems.

 

Only by establishing strong digital resilience foundations will governments be able to adapt to new and emerging technologies, both in terms of harnessing the opportunities these bring but also tackling the future threats they may face.

 

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Petra Jenner is Senior Vice President and General Manager for Europe at Splunk. The Spunk report Developing digital resilience in the United Kingdom is available here.

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com