Modernizing the state via IT

GSIS to host a supercomputing center that will allow for the interconnection of ministries and agencies

The General Secretariat of Information Systems for Public Administration (GSIS) intends to create a supercomputing center that will cover the needs of the entire public sector.

The new supercomputer is expected to cover the needs of the state domains’ digital transformation, with the focus being on simplifying administrative procedures – i.e. reducing bureaucracy and optimizing services for citizens.

The merging of the GSIS infrastructure with that of Information Society (G-Cloud) is set to be implemented soon, and will make the GSIS by far the biggest computing center in the country.

The center will have 3,620 cores, 66.5 terrabyte of RAM and 1,000 terabyte discs. Yet as the computing centers of the state sector flow into the GSIS, according to General

Secretary Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos, the center will be constantly expanding.

In total over the next couple of years, the IT systems of 17 ministries will move to this center, as Law 4623 of 2019 dictates that all ministries’ computing centers have to be relocated to the GSIS by January 1, 2022, except for those classified as concerning the country’s defense.

Based on the same law, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis

will become the government’s IT czar, as every system procurement will have to get both his and the GSIS’s clearance. It will be only by exception, and after having received the ministry’s permission, that public entities will be allowed to implement IT systems and applications. The same will apply to software procurements.

The second step concerns the advance of interoperability: The ministry has already announced a number of measures that will facilitate the communication of state agencies without needing citizens’ intervention. Such a connection will see local authorities communicate with the tax authorities for the former to formally obtain citizens’ non-tax data. A second step will be restoring the connection between the Electronic Administration of Social Security and the tax authorities, to confirm citizens’ data, that was interrupted a year ago.