Transport Safety Bureau sets stage for IT transformation

Windows 8.1 and Surface

The Transport Safety Bureau also revealed plans to upgrade to the Windows 8.1 operating system and the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet hybrid. 

The agency currently runs a Windows 7 standard operating environment (SOE), with remote access provided by Citrix tools.

The ATSB is the first government body to publicly announce a move to the new Windows 8.1 platform and the accompanying Surface 2 hardware. 

Fitzpatrick said the lure of the new operating system was its ability to be used across various platforms.

“We’re trialling the Surface Pro in the IT team to prove it can’t do what we want it to do," he said,  "but it hasn’t failed yet.

"At the moment it’s working extremely well.”

Both North and Fitzpatrick said the goal was to get the most up-to-date version of the operating system at the time of its services transition to ensure value for money. 

“It’s going to cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars to develop an SOE,” North said. “If you spread it across an organisation like the ATSB with 125 people it’s a pretty expensive proposition. You don’t want to do that often.”

The agency also recently cemented its partnership with BlackBerry with an upgrade to Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) and new BlackBerry Z10 and Z30 touchscreen devices.