CRC leading charge to move government IT into the cloud

The Communications Research Centre (CRC) has successfully completed a pilot project that could pave the way for cloud-based R&D across government, signalling a dramatic transformation in how many government researchers work and collaborate.

CRC, a branch of the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) that deals with spectrum management R&D, is utilizing private cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to determine how such services can be utilized to enable better collaboration, scale up research efforts and provide more reliable and efficient products and services to clients.

With spectrum demand soaring and the pending introduction of fifth generation wireless technologies (5G), spectrum allocation is a hot and constantly evolving area of R&D. CRC is working on how best to utilize the cloud to deliver on its mandate to probe the fundamentals of wireless technology that include cloud computing and information processing. CRC estimates that 80% of its R&D is now conducted in the cloud.

The bulk of CRC’s R&D is focused around three grand challenges: spectrum environmental awareness (cloud-based infrastructure and sensors), better use of spectrum (demand use and dynamic assignment) and breaking existing frequency barriers. It also provides direct client support as well as a growing foresight function, underpinning its transition from reactive to predictive R&D.

“Of the work we do, 25% is with SBDAs (science-based departments and agencies) and 75% is grand challenge work … We’re using machine learning, cloud infrastructure to visualize spectrum, becoming predictive rather than reactive,” says Marc Levesque, CRC’s VP applications and development and a tech veteran who joined CRC in 2015 after nearly 16 years with Altera Corp. “We also have an outreach program with academia, the SBDAs and business.”

As part of its pilot, CRC ran a proof-of-concept project with multiple sensors to demonstrate that its infrastructure has use beyond spectrum management. A separate pilot between the City of Ottawa, Ericsson and Rogers recently deployed a sensor-based system to provide real-time data on the municipality’s water supply. ISED minister Navdeep Bains cited the project earlier this week when he officially launched the CRC’s new Big Data Analytics Centre. He also pointed to the integral role data analytics plays in connected unmanned autonomous vehicles.

The shift to the cloud is integral to CRC’s big data analytics ambitions and the Big Data Analytics Centre — touted as the world’s first lab dedicated to regulatory issues — which will utilize the cloud to merge data sets from multiple sensor sources that can then be visualized for further analysis.

“If you take the word spectrum out of (the CRC pilot), it becomes a pilot of an infrastructure that can be used by other government departments that are gathering their information,” says Levesque. “We’re trying to show that what we’ve built is not just for spectrum, it could be an IoT (Internet of Everything) tool or a system that allows you to bring in all sorts of information … It is a gathering of information but in no way is the data set complete for something you could make a policy decision on. But it shows what’s possible.”

The decision to embrace the cloud was made in 2015 when CRC was at a crossroads over how to replace its aging infrastructure, which was threatening to impede efforts to advance its research agenda. At the same time, CRC was trying to keep pace with other nations that are transitioning their public R&D to the cloud more aggressively. CRC’s pilots are considered key for the whole government as reinvestment in information technology (IT) infrastructure becomes an increasingly pressing issue.

“We (Canada) are an intermediate or later adopter of the cloud but if I look at the scientific research we’re doing at CRC, there are areas where we are far ahead,” says Levesque, pointing to sensor-based big data competency.  “We are very much communications experts (and) we will partner with academia and firms that have even more expertise.”

CRC has worked closely with Shared Services Canada (SSC) and Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) over the course of its pilots as the federal government weighs the benefits of cloud-based services and the changes required from infrastructure and work perspectives.

All SBDAs shared common requirements for their IT infrastructure, namely data collection and storage, data analysis, connectivity, security, the ability to maintain relationships with external partners and collaboration. The cloud is seen as the optimum choice for future needs due to its flexibility and compatibility for virtualization.

“CRC collaborated with us and created a handbook to be shared with other organizations. We’re sharing lessons learned widely,” says Dave Adamson, SSC’s ADM cloud brokering. “It’s an ideal way to collaborate across the federal space and with universities. Collaboration is king in science.”

SSC is responsible for procuring cloud services, managing relationships with vendors and providing a range of services to choose from. In addition it is a source of expert advice for SBDAs dealing with unclassified R&D information. Surprisingly, there appears to be no information on which SBDAs are considering moving their R&D to the cloud as SSC does not gather the necessary information.

While the cloud offers significant benefits and improvements over traditional IT infrastructures, Levesque says cost savings is not a significant factor in its adoption. Using cloud-based infrastructure allows organizations to draw on additional computing capacity when required and improve functionality when cloud providers upgrade their equipment and services.

"(Cost of using the cloud) is in the same order of magnitude … With cloud consumption, you can have much more variability in the shorter period,” says Levesque, adding that CRC has built a full governance model for cloud use and deployment. “From a cultural perspective, it’s been a change in direction for people to rely on this virtual infrastructure environment … What really enables us is having a fast pipe out of government. For us that has been the CANARIE pipe and in parallel there’s been a whole upgrade going on with the federal government.”

Talent

Levesque says CRC’s drive for stronger linkages with academia has a secondary yet pivotal role in recruiting new talent to the agency as many of its scientists move toward retirement.

“We’ll likely have a significant amount of hiring to do in the next five or ten years. We’ve formalized a co-op program through which we bring in 18 to 20 undergrad students per semester and we’re at our sixth semester in,” says Levesque. “We partner with a bunch of different schools and it’s been quite beneficial. Most of the work projects they do are scientific and grand challenge work so they are doing valid, viable work for us in areas of need.”

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