The all round use of Open Source software helps the German Foreign Office to reduce IT costs. According to a recent interview with the head of the IT department Rolf Schuster, the ministry spent 1190 euro per head in 2005. Other ministries spent an amount anywhere between twice that to 5000 euro per staff member.
The significant cost saving are the result of using Open Source, Schuster says in the interview with by Heise.de, a German IT news web site.
The Foreign Office began using GNU/Linux and other Open Source applications in 2002. It needed to build highly-secure intranet connections with 230 offices abroad. "It was a 100 million euro project, for which we only had 17 million."
The ministry is using custom built GNU/Linux servers that encrypt all data transferred between its offices, using the strongest certified encryption methods. Some three to four hundred laptops have been fitted with the Debian GNU/Linux distribution offering the same high level encryption, in combination with a smart-card plugged into a USB port and offering secure standard network connectivity as well as secure wireless network, and mobile network connections.
Virtual machine
On these laptops the diplomats use Open Office, a suite of Open Source office applications. It also has a copy on hand of the proprietary operating system Windows including some applications. This is installed in a virtual machine, which can only be used without network connectivity. This fall-back option is needed in case Open Office incorrectly displays official documents numbering hundreds of pages, which might lead to problems for the diplomats.
According to the news site, several other German ministries have also turned to Open Source applications. The ministry for Economic Affairs selected Firefox, an Open Source web browser and the federal department involved in IT security is using Open Office on all of its desktop PCs.
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Further information:
- Heise.de news item (in German)