Defence

Chief Information Officer

CIO in fight against crime

By Rob Thorman

Through the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Group, the Defence Computing Bureau (DCB) provides enterprise server support for Defence corporate applications such as PMKeyS, Roman and the Standard Defence Supply System (SDSS). The DCB provides services such as enterprise server configuration, operation and maintenance, operational backup and recovery, data migration and design and maintenance of databases.

The CIO Group uses a wide variety of computing resources to support Defence enterprise computing systems such as two IBM mainframes which are among the largest in Australia, enabling an incredible 10 million transactions to be processed every day. It also supports approximately 60 Microsoft Windows-based enterprise computing systems such as the DEFWEB, the Defence Internet site, PMKeyS Self Service and DEFCARE. As you can imagine, meeting the continuous data growth of Defence's systems requires a lot of storage space. In fact, over 180 terabytes of disk storage and six petabytes of tape storage is required.

The CIO Group also provides these services to an external agency - CrimTrac.

The CrimTrac Agency was established on 1 July 2000, under the Commonwealth Attorney-General portfolio, as a major national policing initiative for the 21st Century.

The original Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the provision of mainframe services for the National Exchange of Police Information (NEPI) was signed in July 2000. The original driver for the request for CIO to provide this service was that the CIO Group was seen as able to provide a cost effective, independent and secure environment. Also, CrimTrac saw Defence as a very important independent service provider due to the sensitivity of the information that required hosting. All CrimTrac systems are isolated from the Defence environment and are supported via a separate network including backups.

The Australian Federal Police manages CrimTrac's Private Wide Area Network which is used to give police agencies access to CrimTrac applications that are administered by CIO Group.

The nationwide CrimTrac hardware systems supported by the CIO Group are:

• NAFIS - National Automated Fingerprint Identification System. The system was used in Thailand for victim identification after the Tsunami disaster.
• NCIDD - National Criminal Investigation DNA Database. This system has been used for identifying victims of the Bali bombing, the Tsunami disaster and the Norfolk Island murder investigation, just to name a few.
• ANCOR - Australian National Child Offender Register.
• NHBSS - National Handgun Buyback Support System.
• MNPP - Minimum Nationwide Person Profile - real time identity data for operational police.

EAMS - External Agency Management System. This system provides criminal history information to assist vetting for positions of trust in agencies that have contracted with CrimTrac for this purpose. There were a staggering 500,000 vettings required for the Sydney Olympic Games.

On 2 December 2005, a new MOU, extending our relationship a further two years, was signed by the acting Chief Executive Officer of the CrimTrac Agency, Mr Richard Oliver, and Defence Chief Information Officer, Air Vice-Marshal John Monaghan.

"The partnership with CrimTrac and the relationship Defence had with the Australian Federal Police in the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, demonstrates Defence's commitment to assisting policing in Australia and abroad," says Air Vice-Marshal Monaghan.

CrimTrac and the CIO Group are currently negotiating to broaden the partnership by providing support and maintenance for CrimTrac's application tier server environment based on 65 plus Windows/VMWare servers. Once the CrimTrac systems have been moved into the CIO group support matrix, two major initiatives will be placed upon the CIO Group. Firstly, the delivery of an Enterprise Wide Storage Solution and, secondly, a Disaster Recovery capability.

The relationship has evolved considerably over the last 5 years and is a critical part of the effectiveness with which CrimTrac operates. It is a partnership built on trust and one that has been successful for both CrimTrac and Defence. It is a clear indicator of the capabilities of the CIO Group in delivering services to the highest standard.

Rob Thorman is the Director, Defence Computing Bureau in the Chief Information Officer Group

This diagram shows the number of PCs that CIO Group has upgraded to Microsoft Windows XP as at 30 January 2006. Visit the CIO Group website at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/ciogweb/ for the most recent figures.

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