telstra's response to - our digital future v1 · 1.4 improve telecommunications...

TELSTRA’S RESPONSE TO

OUR DIGITAL FUTURE Tasmanian Government Strategy for Digital Transformation

2019-2022

Version 1.0 20/11/2019

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

PRIORITY 1: OUR DIGITAL COMMUNITY 51.1 Deliver the Digital Ready for Daily Life program for digitally disadvantaged groups 5

1.2 Develop more opportunities for lifelong digital skills learning 6

1.3 Provide more options and opportunities for public access to ‘anytime, anywhere’ government services 6

1.4 Improve telecommunications infrastructure, particularly in rural and regional Tasmania 6

1.5 Increase ‘smart city’ technology to support urban communities and new technology businesses 7

1.6 Support transformative digital projects that improve the delivery of frontline services to Tasmanians 8

PRIORITY 2: OUR DIGITAL ECONOMY 92.1 Empower local businesses through the Digital Ready for Business program 9

2.2 Work with industry, business and education partners to develop and promote centres of excellence in digital education, career pathways and workforce capability 9

2.3 Accelerate technology startups and entrepreneurial pathways through targeted programs supported by the Office of the Coordinator-General 10

2.4 Build the export capabilities of technology businesses through the Tasmanian Trade Strategy 2019-2025 10

2.5 Uplift the global branding of Tasmania’s information technology industry 10

2.6 Work with industry providers to enhance the adequacy and reliability of Tasmania’s digital communications infrastructure 11

PRIORITY 3: OUR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT 123.1 Develop new frameworks for information management and data analytics 12

3.2 Develop a whole-of-government technology roadmap 13

3.3 Adopt a cloud-first policy approach across government agencies 14

3.4 Implement a cybersecurity program that prioritises critical asset protection across government 14

3.5 Develop digital culture and capability across government agencies 15

3.6 Streamline government processes for the procurement of technology services 16

3.7 Reduce government red tape through the adoption of digital solutions 16

INTRODUCTION

As a long‐standing partner of the Tasmanian Government and the Tasmanian community as a whole,

Telstra applauds the concepts and vision for Tasmania articulated in the Our Digital Futures discussion

paper.

Throughout this document, Telstra have provided feedback and insight from our own T22 Digitisation

journey. Telstra are well advanced into our Digital Transformation Strategy and we believe our insight and

capability will be of extreme value to Tasmanian Government on your similar journey. Telstra are forever

adjusting and adopting better ways of doing things to ensure that we are enhancing our customer

experience. We have also offered some recent examples of partnering with Governments to facilitate their

digital transformation journeys.

Additionally, we are pleased to provide our Point of View in response to the Tasmanian Government Cloud

Policy and Tasmanian Government Cloud Policy Risk draft documents.

Having driven many Cloud adoption projects and as Australia’s largest consumer of Cloud services, Telstra is

indeed uniquely positioned to provide perspective and insights as both a consumer and provider of Cloud

services at scale.

It’s a fact that change can be disruptive, it may have profound impact on individuals and raise questions

with others, it may alter brand perceptions and in our case impact stockholder value.

As we will discuss, at Telstra we take the view that culture and working with our people to prepare for

changes in the way we interact both internally with one another and externally with our customers is a

critical element in any transformational program.

Much like an orchestra that brings together competent players, finely tuned instruments, an uplifting score

and the leadership of as great conductor to delight an audience; so too is the success of any

transformational project reflective of the sum of its parts.

At Telstra we have great people with extraordinary expertise, purpose and mindset, we have the most

comprehensive networks and a track record in delivering complex transformational projects, both for

ourselves and many large Government and Enterprise customers and we have strong, stable leadership at

all levels of our business.

In closing we look forward to advancing our collaboration with the Tasmanian Government, your other

partners and stakeholders in developing the concepts articulated in the Our Digital Futures, the Tasmanian

Government Cloud Policy and the Tasmanian Government Cloud Policy Risk draft documents.

TELSTRA PURPOSE & VALUES

OUR PURPOSE:

To build a connected future so everyone can thrive.

Our Purpose encompasses three areas of focus – customer, partnering to deliver the best technology, and

doing this on the best network. We believe it is people who give purpose to our technology. So we are

committed to staying close to our customers and providing them the best experience. And delivering the

best technology. On the best network. Because our purpose is to build a connected future so everyone can

thrive.

OUR VALUES:

A purpose on its own is not enough. We also need values to express what we stand for and guide the way

we do things. Our values are core to our business and we align everything we do with them.

Here at Telstra, we have five core values.

1. Show we care

2. Work better; together

3. Trust each other to deliver

4. Make the complex simple

5. Find our courage

These are the values we stand for—the values by which we measure all of our actions.

And our values demand action. Being a values‐led organisation means we must have the:

Willingness to take responsibility

Determination to never think, ‘I have no choice’

Humility

Desire to learn

Courage to challenge ourselves and others when values are not met

We know that we will not achieve our strategy unless we get our values right.

Putting these values into action will help us to build a connected future so everyone can thrive.

PRIORITY 1: OUR DIGITAL COMMUNITY

DIRECTION

All Tasmanians should have equal opportunities to interact with digital services and information in ways that

are easy to use, convenient and readily available.

PRINCIPLES

Government‐supported initiatives to close the digital divide in Tasmania will align with the following

principles:

Accessibility: more equitable coverage and connectivity

Ability: inclusive strategies for digital literacy, knowledge and skills

Affordability: digitally‐delivered essential services within reach of all

1.1 Deliver the Digital Ready for Daily Life program for digitally disadvantaged groups

Digital technologies are playing an increasingly central part in our lives and generating social, cultural and

economic benefits for many Australians, however, we know these benefits cannot be shared equally as

some groups and individuals still face real barriers to participation.

Telstra acknowledges Tasmanian citizens face special challenges when it comes to tapping into digital

resources in daily life.

Potential initiatives to assist Tasmanians in becoming digitally ready for modern daily life include:

easy access to a community centre and innovation hub that provides assistance and connection

with groups such as representatives of industry, academics, innovators, entrepreneurs and

technologists, to test ideas, develop commercial concepts and gain confidence with new business

models;

creation of both competence and confidence around digital capability and innovation;

assisted access to technology that will empower Tasmanians to seize digital opportunities;

ongoing training to master the frequent changes in digital technology (new products, features and

technological trends ‐ such as, say, cloud, 5G or virtual reality); and

school programs that ingrain a familiarity with and appreciation of new technologies from an early

age.

1.2 Develop more opportunities for lifelong digital skills learning

Increasingly, the Tasmanian workforce will demand particular skill types that will need to be fostered

through life‐long learning initiatives delivered in a flexible and easily consumed format.

At Telstra we provide specialist anywhere, anytime skills training via our on‐line digital learning portal, the

Telstra Academy where specially developed learning content may be directed to a company‐wide or a

specific functional based audience.

To enhance employee engagement and participation, Telstra Academy performance and progress is tracked

with leader boards and merit points awarded on successful completion.

In addition to multiple other training and skills accreditation platforms, Telstra employees have self‐serve

access to global on‐line learning platforms such as Lynda.com.

1.3 Provide more options and opportunities for public access to ‘anytime, anywhere’ government services

Telstra recognises that, in an increasingly connected world, anytime, anywhere access to services has

become a fundamental consumer expectation.

To this end we are investing heavily in our own end to end transformation to simplify the things that impact

our employees working experience alongside transforming our customer’s experience to include secure

digital services that are current, reliable and accessible anytime, anywhere, using any device.

Our own journey has highlighted that frequent employee and customer engagement through survey’s and

feedback channels has ensured the right options are made available with measurable outcomes evidenced

by uplifts in both NPS and employee engagement metrics.

Based on this experience and by collaborating to create improvements in areas such as decision making,

standards, knowledge transfer (education), user engagement and communications, Telstra is well

positioned to assist Government to become more efficient, transparent, responsive and accountable.

1.4 Improve telecommunications infrastructure, particularly in rural and regional Tasmania

With telecommunications infrastructure critical for the economic and social future of our State,

we have, as a result of our long‐standing track record of regional investment and support for co‐

contribution programs within Tasmania, built the largest fixed and mobile coverage footprint

within the State.

The majority of Tasmanian’s utilise Telstra networks virtually on a daily basis, either directly with

Telstra or indirectly through a wholesale relationship basis. Consequently, the majority of

Tasmania’s benefit when Telstra’s infrastructure is expanded.

By way of example, the recently completed Flinders Island Network Upgrade has resulted in a

transformational upgrade of telecommunications services for a low population base and has built

a platform for future growth on the island in the digital age.

A similar project is presently underway to enhance services on Tasmania’s West coast.

Telstra’s involvement in these project means that the overwhelming majority of Tasmanians living

on or visiting these areas will benefit from these upgrades.

Together, Tasmanian Government and Telstra will jointly enhance the connected experience of all

Tasmanians.

1.5 Increase ‘smart city’ technology to support urban communities and new technology businesses

Federal, State and Local Government organisations will benefit by developing smart city technologies and

roadmaps to support urban communities and new technology businesses.

By way of example, under the Greater Launceston Transformation Project (GLTP), Telstra collaborated with

local stakeholders to design principles to help ‘future proof’ Tasmania’s investments spanning, transport

systems, building management systems, utility systems and many others.

Additionally, Telstra has partnered with councils, industries and academia to reveal how the development

of an ‘Intelligent Building’ with an Integrated Communications Network (ICN) backbone and Software

Defined Networks (SDN) that operate all building services (including security, heating, ventilation and air

conditioning, lighting, room bookings, lifts, internet access, printing, etc. where all services are connected

to each other), can transform the tenant experience in the building, lower costs of operation and improved

environmental outcomes.

Telstra has worked closely under the GLTP to support urban communities and new technology businesses

with digital transformation that assisted citizens and businesses to:

make better decisions (e.g. provision of real time traffic information, advice on alternative travel

routes in the face of delays, assistance with way‐finding in getting around, alerts of raised pollen

levels etc.)

sweat civic assets with various feedback loops contributing to increased efficiency and higher

utilisation (e.g. improved lane controls and traffic management to increase flows without adding

additional lanes)

develop new insights on how a city operates to change outcomes indirectly

Vision led and centred on human values, Telstra believes this holistic approach is a key element to ensure

high value from Smart City projects.

1.6 Support transformative digital projects that improve the delivery of frontline services to Tasmanians

In our experience, a common challenge for governments is delivering clear and impactful outcomes within

constrained budgets and often challenging timeframes.

Consequently, it is critical that in delivering meaningful and transformative service delivery improvement

projects, that the scope, priorities, and investments are focused on the things that matter most to the

community.

In our view these community needs must be explored in detail, and new service delivery models designed

and delivered in an adaptable way – a methodology that continuously listens to and learns from the

communities it impacts.

In delivering to the objectives and outcomes to support digital transformation and frontline services to

Tasmanians, we recommend the Tasmanian Government considers a human‐centered approach where the

Tasmanian community are placed at the heart of the design and delivery of improved digital services.

PRIORITY 2: OUR DIGITAL ECONOMY

DIRECTION

Tasmania’s economy will be bolstered by the competitive advantage, productivity growth and prosperity

enabled by knowledge‐driven digital transformation.

PRINCIPLES

The Tasmanian Government will support a digitally connected and prosperous business community

through:

• Capability: skilled and empowered digital‐ready businesses

• Creativity: accelerated business start‐ups and innovative career pathways

• Connectivity: strategic goals achieved through collaborative relationships and connected resources

2.1 Empower local businesses through the Digital Ready for Business program

We understand the Tasmanian Government wants to support a digitally connected and prosperous

business community through empowering the capabilities of digital‐ready businesses, accelerating the

creativity of start‐ups and achieving more collaborative relationships.

To this end, we recognise and wholly support the principles of the Digital Ready for Business initiative in

providing high value coaching and information to help Tasmanian small businesses take the next step

online and would welcome the opportunity to share insights of our own Telstra Academy and learning and

mentoring programs with the Digital Ready for Business team.

2.2 Work with industry, business and education partners to develop and promote centres of excellence in digital education, career pathways and workforce capability

Telstra recognises the imperative for Government to partner with industry, academia, other governments,

entrepreneurs, not‐for‐profits and others to enhance future opportunities for citizens and with that the

flow on economic benefits to the State.

Our broad ranging experience across all industry verticals, led by our industry specialist who bring real

world experience and innovation mindsets to the conversation, ideally positions Telstra to work with the

State and other stakeholders to mutually explore and develop these concepts.

2.3 Accelerate technology startups and entrepreneurial pathways through targeted programs supported by the Office of the Coordinator-General

Telstra has a longstanding commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurial pathways similar to the

aspirations highlighted above via our investment channel Telstra Ventures.

Telstra Ventures is a strategic growth investor in lighthouse technology companies that are commencing

scale. They provide venture capital investment via a “Strategic Growth Investment” approach. This

approach offers entrepreneurs access to genuine revenue growth beyond the investment itself and

shortens the time to reach global scale, supporting this growth through investment capital and leadership.

Telstra Ventures has previously met with Tasmanian Government representatives to share insights and

learnings.

2.4 Build the export capabilities of technology businesses through the Tasmanian Trade Strategy 2019-2025

Telstra recognizes and wholly supports the principles of the Tasmanian Trade Strategy which sets a

coordinated whole‐of‐government approach to work with business and partners to grow trade, both

domestically and internationally.

Telstra is a global technology company that empowers businesses of all sizes to thrive in a connected world.

We deliver transformational experiences through innovative connectivity, collaboration and IT solutions,

via one of the world’s most advanced networks.

While we have already highlighted the breadth of Telstra’s coverage within the State, connectivity to

mainland Australia is provided by 2 x geographically diverse subsea cables, each having 1 terabit per second

capacity ‐ the equivalent of 200,000 high‐definition videos being streamed simultaneously.

For Tasmanian based technology businesses seeking to connect with global markets beyond mainland

Australia, Telstra International provides access to more than 2,000 Points of Presences (PoPs) in more than

200 countries and territories globally.

This fully integrated local, national, and global network enables Tasmanian based technology businesses of

all sizes to engage and compete with their global peers without impediment.

2.5 Uplift the global branding of Tasmania’s information technology industry

As Australia’s most valuable brand, Telstra continues to invest in this space.

While Tasmania’s brand is generally focussed toward our lifestyle, cost of living and clean green image, with

the increasing emergence of Tasmanian based ‘smart’ industries there is a clear opportunity to expand this

by adding focus on our ICT capability.

As per 2.4 above, our fully integrated local, national, and global network enables Tasmanian based

technology business to engage and compete with their global peers without impediment, thereby

supporting the global branding aspirations of Tasmania’s information technology industry.

2.6 Work with industry providers to enhance the adequacy and reliability of Tasmania’s digital communications infrastructure

As discussed in 1.4 above, Telstra is deeply committed to continuing our longstanding engagement with the

State and other key stakeholders, including our widespread vendor and partner ecosystem to further

expand and enhance digital communications infrastructure within Tasmania and beyond.

PRIORITY 3: OUR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT

DIRECTION

The Tasmanian community is best served by a progressive government that puts the contemporary needs and

expectations of citizens first, transforming the way it works and the way services are delivered.

PRINCIPLES

The Tasmanian Government will develop new digital infrastructure and systems that demonstrate:

Simplicity: intuitive, seamless and convenient services that enhance two‐way interaction

Security: trusted, resilient systems that safeguard government‐held information and

services

Strategy: single sign‐on for secure access to joined‐up citizen services

3.1 Develop new frameworks for information management and data analytics

Following a recent company‐wide review of our own approach to information management and data analytics, one of our key findings was that embedded governance across data users, data creators, stewards and owners is critical to minimize illegitimate access to information and inherent business risk.

Based on this, other learnings and global best practices, Telstra offers a wide range of services to enhance the Government’s approach to information management and data analytics, these include:

Data Insight Advisory Services – assisting Government to leverage the value of data and assisting in extrapolation of insights to decisions and decision frameworks.

Data Platform Integration Services – defining and orchestrating the integration of disparate data platform capabilities and insights.

Data Mentoring and Enablement Services ‐ providing for enablement of internal Government capability upskill identified in‐house resources and build a data culture across the organisation.

Data Advocacy – engaging community stakeholders to gain commitment and provide opportunities for data economy.

Data Governance – oversight across data work streams.

Data Science Services ‐ provision of data science support to derive second‐order insights from and between data work streams.

Telstra provides a holistic approach across the numerous areas required for success, from gathering data from sensors right to up governance and strategic partnerships.

See also 3.4 below re the 5 Knows of Cybersecurity which can be applied as a framework to assist in understanding this data management challenge and understanding what data assets are critical

3.2 Develop a whole-of-government technology roadmap

Telstra agrees that it is critical to have a clear objective which is focused on the needs of citizens and

government and that citizens want government services to be useful, easy, and respectful of their time.

For those that are delivering services they want them to be effective and have technology infrastructure

that allows them to focus more of their time on delivering outcomes and less on administrative tasks.

Modernizing information technology supports good government ‐ clear direction and good policy, as well as

the overall citizen experience, targeted changes in technology can make lives better.

We argue that whole‐of‐government technology development is the right goal for Tasmania and a

necessary component in delivering on the aims of the Tasmanian digital transformation. Anticipated

success factors include:

Design principles ‐ Defining what matters most and specify strategic requirements that the strategy

must support. They also pinpoint aspects of the current state that could hinder the future strategy

and therefore must change.

Co‐creation ‐ actively encourage participation of key government IT decision makers early and

frequently, that is a working group including external experts

Citizen‐centric ‐ ensure focus is on supporting citizen‐centric digital services

Standard platforms ‐ Systems that provide basic corporate functionality, (such as identity,

document management, briefing, finance, human resources management and procurement) will be

shared, standardised and consolidated

Agile innovation ‐ a common language and a range of methodologies and tools for innovation

practices to better succeed in solving problems, reducing citizens’ pain points and offering more

efficient and convenient services. Deliver through MVPs, at speed.

Capability fostering ‐ Develop government capabilities to utilise information technology services to

enable business objectives

Additional considerations and governing factors in developing a Whole of Government technology roadmap

may include the following:

Fiscal savings Cost certainty Optimisation of ICT investment Enabler for business and service delivery Jobs and growth Contestability and choice Innovation and collaboration Social and community Tourism investment Connecting Agencies Effective and efficient purchasing

3.3 Adopt a cloud-first policy approach across government agencies

Please refer to Telstra’s response to Tasmanian Government Cloud Policy and Cloud Policy Risk Assessment

Guide accompanying this document.

3.4 Implement a cybersecurity program that prioritises critical asset protection across government

The digital delivery of government functions brings with it the potential of significant gains in accessibility

and speed of service delivery. It also introduces new risks from the potential misuse and abuse of those

digital delivery mechanisms. The security of the personal information of constituents that government

holds needs to be at the forefront of planning these new service delivery models and not added as an after‐

thought.

Where digital information is collected by government consideration needs to be given to what information

should be kept, with the associated potential to reuse this data for other applications and analysis, and

what data should be securely disposed of eliminating the risk of that personal data being misused.

With increased digitisation and collection of personal data electronically comes the increased responsibility

to ensure that data is stored and accessed securely and in line with defined policies.

Telstra has published the 5 Knows of Cybersecurity which can be applied as a program framework for

understanding this data management challenge and understanding what data assets are critical:

The digital delivery of services both by governments and industry are increasingly being underpinned by

cloud based platforms. Cloud application platforms, whether they are only providing infrastructure (IaaS)

right through to software (SaaS) introduce the concept of a shared security model where the cloud service

provider and the government will be jointly responsible for securing the data. In considering cloud

providers and cloud models they deliver the government can utilise a program like Telstra’s 5 Knows to

ensure there is a consistent understanding of the security model.

The shift to cloud delivery of applications changes the security challenge and needs to be incorporated into

security controls used to protect the personal information held and to protect the applications from misuse

and cyber‐attacks. Traditional approaches to cyber security built a perimeter inside of which was the

trusted domain and outside the untrusted. This security model does not work where applications and data

resides outside of the organisations traditional perimeter on cloud platforms and is accessed by users

remotely by mobile devices. Today’s perimeter needs to be based on the identity of who is attempting to

access the application. How the government manages the identity of both its constituents and employees

providing services needs to be central to the planning of the digital delivery of services.

3.5 Develop digital culture and capability across government agencies

When creating a digital culture, it is crucial to note that different stakeholders will respond differently to

change and therefore the effort, tactics, and timing we spend on each stakeholder needs to take this into

account. To build a digital culture across Telstra, we have mapped each key BU along our Adoption Curve,

which categorises stakeholders into:

Innovators

Early Adapters

Early Majority

Late Majority

Laggards

Having experienced significant disruption to our business earlier this year, we understand that cultural

change does not happen overnight, rather it is an on‐gong program of transformation that, to be effective,

requires commitment and buy in across all levels of the business.

To assist in realising our own cultural ambitions, we have elected a team of Cultural Champions who come

from a wide range of functions and geographic spread across the business to join our conversations and

provide a local go to for questions and to share our ideas and feedback to our senior leaders.

While relatively early days, the general view from across the business is that we are already seeing many

positive outcomes from this program like approach to cultural transformation and that we are well

advanced on our cultural journey.

3.6 Streamline government processes for the procurement of technology services

Telstra intends to provide a detailed response on this topic in answer to the Technology Services Procurement Review Discussion Paper as released by Department of Treasury and Finance and due for submission on 29 November 2019.

3.7 Reduce government red tape through the adoption of digital solutions

This is complex and there is no simple answer.

While there are many examples of Government and industry (including Telstra) reducing red tape via the adoption of digital solutions, automation and artificial intelligence, we view there is no value in listing them here as, while frequently similar, each instance or use case invariably has its own particular nuances. As such any approach should be solution agnostic until such time as the desired business outcome is fully understood and agreed by all.

Telstra have adopted an Agile methodology to assist in simplifying and streamlining our own processes and timeframes. In addition to this, we have greatly reduced and simplified our solution offerings which has immediate benefits throughout the organisation, including but not limited to, billing, training, workflows, processes, marketing, HR, this list is long.

Through constant review, adjustment and the introduction of well thought out governance programs, we are seeing outcomes that are greatly aligned to our ambitious objectives.

Telstra have seen great success in eliminating red tape by adopting an ‘I think’ to ‘I know’ methodology. Telstra has and uses digital solutions and big data analytics to answer many of its own questions as opposed to relying solely on opinion or memory.

Equally, it is our view that the adoption of digital solutions should align with community needs and expectations, the objectives of the Whole of Government technology roadmap and the cultural aspirations of Government to ensure success.

TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT – TELSTRA POINT OF VIEW

TELSTRA CLOUD – POINT OF VIEW

Version 1.0 20/11/2019 Author: Kent R. Ramchand

Tasmanian Government – Telstra Point of View

TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT – TELSTRA POINT OF VIEW V1.0 PAGE | 2

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

PUBLIC SECTOR CLOUD COMPUTING 5

TELSTRA’S HYBRID CLOUD JOURNEY 6

TELSTRA LESSONS LEARNT 6

TELSTRA CAPABILITY 8

TELSTRA CLOUD SIGHT – A BETTER WAY TO MANAGE CLOUD AND 10

11

14

15

16

17

CLOUD CONNECTIVITY FROM A SINGLE PANE OF GLASS

CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICE PROVISIONING GOVERNANCE

RECOMMENDATION

NEXT STEPS

RISK ASSESSMENT

REFERENCES



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Telstra recognise that society demands continue increasing while budgets are further constrained. The

organization wants to embrace the cloud as an enabling technology and to transition the business to

become service‐oriented. The adoption of public cloud‐based services is becoming more common for large

enterprises, and the cloud providers continue to release new service offerings and improve the features

within existing offerings. Consuming cloud technologies will allow the organization to:

Be more responsive in meeting business needs

Shift IT resources to other tasks

Become more agile when comparing deployment alternatives

Enable better tracking of spend by line of business or project

Leverage Telstra’s scale and lessons learnt from our own Cloud Adoption journey

However, embracing cloud will impose new challenges, such as:

Lack of IT resources that are familiar with the cloud service providers (CSPs) services, tools and

APIs

Architecting a cloud‐based data protection and business continuity strategy

Integration between existing datasets and public cloud services — user access, data integration,

networking and security

Ensuring governance, availability and compliance

Runtime management of cloud resources

Telstra have a range of Network and Cloud integration solutions including: Software Defined Networking,

Telstra Cloud Gateway, Telstra Network Cloud, Edge Computing and Telstra Programmable Networking that

provide a consumption based commercial model for integrating with the Hyperscale Cloud providers and

Telstra’s Storage as a Service that are reflected in the diagram below where we have recommended on on‐

island and off‐island Hybrid Cloud Platform as a potential instantiation of Tasmanian Government Cloud

Strategy. Customers have major sticky decisions to make when adopting Cloud Computing:

How cloud‐native to go and when to transition

Which vendor(s) to choose

How to enable new functionality while maintaining legacy systems



It is difficult to consume integrated IT outcomes across the Cloud Computing landscape as well as network

and aligned products and this is where Telstra’s cloud and networking services simplify Cloud Computing

adoption.

Telstra provides significant network services to Tasmanian Government today. We have added Hybrid

Cloud components to these network services in the architecture overview diagram below depicting

Managed Private Cloud in on‐island data centre’s together with Telstra’s Cloud Gateway to access the

Hyper scalers off island. Moreover, it identifies the logical components required to support a Digitised

Government Economy:

IoT Network = Narrow Band IoT network, suitable for large scale IoT device rollouts

Cellular network of 4G and 5G

SD‐WAN for application visibility and networking flexibility

Cloud Gateway – Central point for connectivity to the Hyper scalers and Telstra Multi‐Cloud Storage

Telstra Multi‐Cloud Storage ‐ Telstra's Storage as a Service platform available in Telstra Data Centre's in Clayton and St. Leonards

Figure 1 – Proposed Transformed Tasmanian Government Hybrid Cloud



PUBLIC SECTOR CLOUD COMPUTING

There is a global trend emerging among government agencies from the United States, Europe and Australia

to drive adoption of cloud computing services aimed at boosting productivity, innovation and business

agility across the digital economy (United States Government, 2018) (European Commission, 2018)

(Australian Government, 2017). From an industry perspective, RightScale’s annual State of The Cloud report

(RightScale, 2019) states that 58% of the respondents to their survey reported having a Hybrid Cloud

strategy with private cloud adoption growing relative to public cloud adoption during the period of 2018‐

2019.

The Australian Federal Government is accelerating its bid to transform into one of the world’s top three

digital governments by 2025, signing a three‐year agreement with Microsoft Australia that will streamline

cloud access for 98 federal agencies. Furthermore, Australia’s government agencies can use Amazon Web

Services (AWS) to store and process sensitive information held in the AWS Sydney region, paving the way

for wider adoption of public cloud services by security‐conscious organisations.

In terms of state governments on the mainland, they are on the public record as using the hyper scaler

platforms:

Victorian Government: Azure, AWS

New South Wales: Azure, AWS

Queensland: Azure, AWS

South Australia: Azure, AWS

Western Australia: Azure, AWS

Therefore, the Tasmanian Government should consider the public cloud providers on the mainland for your

own purposes.

Australia’s government agencies can use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store and process sensitive

information held in the AWS Sydney region, paving the way for wider adoption of public cloud services by

security‐conscious organisations. The AWS certification was welcomed by public sector organisations such

as the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), which is already using AWS for cloud.gov.au, a secure cloud‐

based platform for hosting website applications that helps government agencies build digital services

quickly.

Microsoft Azure’s platform is security and compliance certified by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)

for OFFICIAL: Sensitive‐ and PROTECTED‐level data.



TELSTRA’S HYBRID CLOUD JOURNEY

Refer to Appendix A.

Please note Appendix A is Commercial in Confidence and not for publication or wider distribution.

TELSTRA LESSONS LEARNT

Telstra’s own Cloud Computing adoption over the past decade has led to the following guidance and thought‐provoking questions.

Multi‐cloud Strategy is a reality:

• One size doesn’t fit all – No single Cloud will be the panacea for all your workloads. Best economy is

realised through a Multi‐Cloud approach regardless of industry while respecting data gravity (i.e.

leave the data where it is created). The investment in the current Telstra Networking Tasmania Core

allows the State Government the flexibility to enable cloud‐based services as needed on both a

Whole of Government and individual agency levels giving different sections of the state government

the option of utilizing different arrangements of services.

• Establish an effective Cloud ecosystem first – Establish the required tools for management,

assurance, governance and automation

Your network must enable Cloud adoption

• Ensure infrastructure is in place to support Cloud connectivity – Robust connectivity is required to

ensure successful utilization of Cloud‐based applications and services. Through the management of

the Networking Tasmania Core, Telstra is best placed to capacity manage and scale the networking

to hyper‐scaler Cloud platforms to ensure performance of services are maintained for Tasmanian

stakeholders while providing a mature and reliable platform upon which to build connectivity to

multiple Cloud providers.

Is your current security practice ready and considerate of Cloud?

Is your service management interoperable with Cloud?

How do you best manipulate your data for Cloud without countless replication? Replication=cost.

• Makes choices that drive business benefits not a tech agenda – Work bottom‐up from within your

business, focus on solving for the problem and not working to a technology end state.



• Don’t try to do too much at once – Incremental Cloud Computing adoption will yield greater cost

and efficiency benefits with less unwanted surprises. The infrastructure of the Telstra Networking

Tasmania Core provides a reliable platform allowing agencies to consume Cloud services down to

very small scales without additional significant investment in time and infrastructure to build

connectivity to Cloud providers they may not end up utilising on a large scale.

• Not all workloads are ready or should go to cloud – Sometimes the best place for a workload may

be where it currently resides based on cost, performance or remediation/readiness effort for cloud.



TELSTRA CAPABILITY

Telstra Cloud Services has the depth and breadth of service capabilities to make the journey to hybrid and

public clouds significantly simpler and more predictable for enterprise and government. Telstra is focused

on providing customers with flexibility and choice in cloud services, and on ensuring secure and reliable

network‐integrated service creation and delivery across multiple cloud environments.

We offer customers central visibility and control with one bill, one identity and a choice of multiple tools,

platforms, infrastructure, network integration and value‐added services linked together by Telstra’s

network and service management. Telstra’s platform and value‐added services are depicted below:

Figure 2 – Telstra Cloud Ecosystem



A prescriptive view of Telstra’s Cloud Service Offerings is elaborated below:

Figure 3 – Telstra Cloud Service Offerings



TELSTRA CLOUD SIGHT – A BETTER WAY TO MANAGE CLOUD AND CLOUD CONNECTIVITY FROM A SINGLE PANE OF GLASS

Telstra Cloud Sight is Telstra developed Intellectual Property (IP), product and platform that enables customers to manage Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure Cloud services. The features of the product are:

Budget and cost analytics

Cloud connectivity from NextIP

Account provisioning and builds and

Best practice solution blueprints

Figure 4 – Telstra Cloud Sight Overview

Refer to Appendix B for the Telstra Cloud Sight roadmap.

Please note Appendix B is Commercial in Confidence and not for publication or wider distribution.



CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICE PROVISIONING GOVERNANCE

Telstra recommends making cloud services available in Service Now via its Service Catalogue to provide a

governance layer for the right sizing of application infrastructure provisioned in production and non‐

production environments.

The typical workflow for end user’s interaction with Service Now and the consumption of cloud services in a

governed way is via a Cloud Management Platform (CMP). The ServiceNow workflow typically follows the

pattern of a:

User selecting their preferred service in ServiceNow with a request

Approval by Cloud Operations

The CMP Cloud Provisioning Template is executed (via API) to provision Instances launched in the

Public or Private Cloud Platform

Email notification of successfully provisioning.

Significantly, Telstra’s Purple professional services organisation is equipped to provide the professional and

managed services to enable the workflow and integration of each of the components. Telstra Purple is well

positioned to consult with the government and assess the large estate of workloads across various

infrastructures. Invariably, the Virtual Machine's (VM) will be many applications that fit into several

categories that can be mapped to an outcome.

We've developed the concept of Govern, Manage, Automate capabilities into a Cloud Management

Portal. Practically this means, the provisioning of all VM's can be Governed by the Telstra CMP with some

good planning and design around account layout, cloud credentials, tagging and organizing around the

overall CMP footprint across the resource pools necessary (e.g. VMWare, AWS, Azure, GCP). In the manage

phase, a portion of those VM's will be Managed by the CMP. It is likely a smaller portion of those VM's will

be truly Cloud capable and the government will more than likely want to automate the entire lifecycle. One

of the early activities the government can undertake is to align the implementation strategy with the

outcomes required across the estate of VM's and begin the process of placing those workloads into their

current and desired state from a business value perspective.

All of this leads to the reality of Cloud Computing which is that it doesn't lend itself to traditional estimating

or a significant amount of upfront requirements gathering. The most successful cloud projects adopt an

Agile approach to engaging with a focus on the outcomes required in a Hybrid Cloud environment. Hybrid

Cloud is now mainstream in industry. Underpinning Hybrid Cloud is hybrid infrastructure that includes the

integration of virtual computing and underlying components in an enterprise’s data centre and public cloud

using a network integration component like the Telstra Cloud Gateway. Additionally, Hybrid Orchestration

is required to manage workloads across silos and implementing workload portability and a ‘Cloud Right’

placement of applications. Using API’s or cloud application integration components to enable the



composition of services or applications spread across clouds and data centres to obtain functionality and

meet business outcomes.

One of the critical components Telstra have to support Hybrid Cloud is our Storage as a Service offering,

Telstra Virtual Storage. This enables the flexibility in choice for compute when required based on capability

or pricing shifts in the market, support the storage of dynamic data required to support data scientists for

running their algorithms, a home of archived data or storage of snapshots and complete backups as

required.

Inherent in supporting multiple clouds is a Cloud Management Platform. Running an agile two‐speed IT

team enabling differentiation in a competitive market has become highly desirable for many IT

departments. At the same time, IT is challenged with finding the right mix of agile business enabling

capability with governance, security, and compliance to obtain cost savings in the use of public cloud. This

had led to the adoption of cloud services in a disciplined manner.

To obtain cost savings in public cloud, investment in governance is required – without IT controls in place,

sprawl will eventuate. The right cloud placement for a workload can result in significant savings. Without

governance, the following implications can appear:

Public cloud accounts managed outside IT

Limited or no controls on instance sizing

Limited lifecycle management

Dev\Test workloads powered on indefinitely

Inaccurate chargeback to Lines of Business (LoBs)

Security threats not being managed and mitigated

Like many enterprises, we at Telstra have also been tackling our own digital transformation challenge head

on and working to deliver a cloud first policy. In tackling this challenge, Telstra IT and Cloud Engineering

have been busily Integrating Networks, (Public and Private) Clouds and Cloud Management while

modernising reference architectures, security frameworks and processes associated with this new IT world.

We call this our “Reference Architecture for the Integrated and Cohesive Enterprise”. In using ourselves as

a proof‐point, we are able to deliver tested world class capability to our customers:



Figure 5 - Reference Architecture for the Integrated and Cohesive Enterprise



RECOMMENDATION

Telstra is uniquely positioned to support the Tasmanian Government because of the convergence of

network and IT and their management of the Telstra Networking Tasmania Core. The Digital Economy as

depicted by The Open Group shows the evolution of networking services to where we are today with the

digital economy:

Figure 6 – Evolution of Customer, Enterprise and Market Disruption (Open Group, 2016)

Increasingly Telstra will offer interconnected services; connected people, objects, places, spaces, data &

interactions to support government services and communities Australia wide.

Telstra’s adoption of 5G will provide significant opportunity for Tasmanian Government departments in

terms of providing the ability to run processor intensive applications at the branches. Specifically, it will

enable:

Artificial Intelligence applications such as facial recognition

Mass IoT and data analysis

Edge Computing through the offering of ‘Telstra’s Network Cloud’

Telstra’s Network Cloud is built upon Telstra’s move to Software Defined Networking and Network Virtual

Functions in our exchanges. The plans are to have 80 Points of Presence built upon Openstack. As this

technology matures, it has significant potential to provide Tasmanian Government with the ability of

shifting traditional infrastructure intensive processes closer to the store to provide an uplift in services in‐

store to customers.



NEXT STEPS

The Tasmanian Government should consider and align on key decisions upfront to ensure success, such as:

Forecast Cloud Computing costs

Workload placement, whether with in a hyper scaler cloud CSP or managed on‐premises private

cloud or leave as‐is

Size the additional Telstra networking to support Tasmanian Government department services now

and into the future

Develop a tooling approach to support governance, automation and assurance

Consider business continuity and availability (initial architecture) patterns for a Hybrid Cloud

platform that included on‐island and off‐island services

Work with Telstra to architect a converged network and cloud solution that satisfies Tasmanian

Government departments now and into the future



RISK ASSESSMENT

The Telstra Cloud team has identified the following risks for the cloud program. The program team is

defining mitigation plans for each risk and will continue to monitor the state of each. Any risk that needs

attention will be identified and discussed by the cloud team and escalated to the executive sponsor for

awareness and resolution. The following table lists the risk with a response from the team.

Table Risk Topics and Responses

Risk Topic Defining Questions

Data Disclosure Failure (Data Confidentiality)

Are the security controls at the Cloud Service Provider sufficient?

Are the controls implemented in the software/services Tasmanian Government deploy sufficient?

Data Loss Failure (Data Availability)

What is the impact of the data becoming unavailable to technical or operational failures (such as if we delete everything in our account)?

Which applications have affinity and where will the data for these be placed?

Business Continuity Impact

How would Tasmanian Government be impacted if this service becomes unavailable?

Are there additional services (such as Internet providers) that require business continuity requirements?

Disaster Recovery If a regional disaster strikes and causes us to trigger our disaster recovery plan, how will the execution of that plan be impacted by these services?

If a regional disaster strikes at the CSP, how will our organization be impacted?

Service Provider Failure If the service provider suddenly exits the market, or the relationship fails, are other providers available?

Service Quality Management

Is Tasmanian Government able to meet the problem identification and resolution (RTO/RPO) expectations of government departments for this service?

If not, are there steps that we can take to address support and availability gaps proactively?

If the gaps cannot be address, are the government departments clearly aware of them?

Governance Impacts How is our management of our user identities, privileges or monitoring or other organizational control expectations impacted?



REFERENCES

1. Australian Government. 2017. “Secure Cloud Strategy.” https://www.dta.gov.au/files/cloud‐strategy/secure‐cloud‐strategy.pdf

2. European Commission. 2018. “Cloud Computing”, https://ec.europa.eu/info/business‐economy‐euro/doing‐business‐eu/contract‐rules/cloud‐computing_en

3. RightScale. 2019. “RightScale 2019 State of The Cloud Report”, RightScale4. Unites States of America Government. 2018. “Cloud Smart Strategy”,

https://www.doi.gov/cloud/strategy5. The Open Group. 2016. “A Framework for Digital Experience”,

https://publications.opengroup.org/w165

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