Direction Générale de l Administration et de la Logistique Service des Technologies de l Information

Transcription

1 Direction Générale de l Administration et de la Logistique Service des Technologies de l Information ITSP Brief description of the Council of Europe's Technological Infrastructure 1 Common services infrastructure 1.1 The multimedia network Through the services it provides, the multimedia network forms the base of our technological infrastructure. The multimedia network comprises a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) federating 9 buildings in Strasbourg and a Wide Area Network (WAN) covering four remote sites and 14 Information Centres. In brief, the MAN comprises an inter-building network using 622 Mbit ATM lines, 100 base-t ATM and ETHERNET connections for the servers and switched 10 base-t ETHERNET connections for the data clients. For the telephony part, the MAN uses 2Mbit PCM technology. The data network uses fiber optics and category 5 and 3 wiring and carries Internet protocols (IP, TCP, http, SMTP etc). It is divided into several VLANs (virtual Local Area Networks). It federates 2,700 connection points in Strasbourg, through which all the infrastructure's peripherals and servers communicate. The WAN covers the Paris and Brussels offices, the European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity (Lisbon) and the European Youth Centre in Budapest, thanks to specialized connections. For the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz and the Information Centres in central and east European capital cities, the means of federation used is the Internet. 1.2 Applications The infrastructure's application layer is made up of several offers: - office automation applications, - "Groupware" team working applications, - WEB hosting systems, - 1/5 -

2 - resource planning and management applications (ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning). Office automation applications The table below lists the software available on the infrastructure via a downloading service accessible on the DIT Intranet site. Software Offers Office Basic Version Office French User Interface Office Language Modules Office Photodraw Office Publisher On-line Office Documentation Internet Explorer Office automation Netscape Communicator Netscape Security Plug-in Adobe Acrobat Reader AllChars Euro Symbol WinZip Reflection RealPlayer Adobe Acrobat Adobe Photoshop OmniPages Pro Web publishing Visual Interdev Norton Antivirus Web Trend Log Analyser Legato Networker WS FTP PRO Teamworking applications (Groupware) The DIT provides a teamworking environment based on architecture comprising applications facilitating communication, information access, cooperation and coordination between the players in the Organisation. The teamworking architecture consists of: - a messaging, diary and Private and Shared Information application (MS Exchange, NT Workgroup) 2

3 Service Offer Messaging Public Folders Outlook Web Access Electronic fax Individual accounts Mailbox hosting Storage of data from pooled work documents Access to the messaging service from the Internet Sending of faxes from the messaging system Account for network access and personal storage space for documents 1.3 WEB Hosting systems WEB hosting takes different forms: - secure Internet access: this hosting method provides access to the DIT's secure Internet gateways from a network connection. The offer includes the protection systems, naming service (name server) and inclusion in the coe.int domain. Examples are the Parliamentary Assembly Secretariat and the Secretariat of the European Court of Human Rights, which use this offer for their Internet servers; - secure Internet access plus provision of Web servers: this offer goes a step further by adding maintenance for a specific Web server which is usually located in the offices of the unit concerned. It is being superseded by the Web Hosting offer; - the Web Hosting offer, as set out below: Service Features Offer "Classic" hosting Hosting plus database Hosting of a remote unit Web Site Active pages Indexing and search engine Secure access "Classic" hosting Database "Classic" hosting Publication via the Internet Specific hosting arrangements Based on expediency study and implementation plan 1.4 Resource planning and management applications (ERP) The DIT service offer includes various resource management and planning applications: Wages of permanent staff (GESPER) Wages of Temporary staff (GESTEMP) Management of official journeys (GESMIS) Human Resources Management (PeopleSoft HRMS) Inventory management (Actima) Accounting and Finance (FIMS) 3

4 1.5 Client peripherals The system architecture's client stations comprised PCs, telephones, printers, fax machines, scanners, video projectors, CD-ROM recorders and laptop PCs and portable printers. In terms of number and function, the PCs are the key component in the client layer. Every Council of Europe staff member has a PC and access to the IS through it. The 1,600 PCs are located in the 9 buildings in Strasbourg and also at remote office sites (Paris, Brussels, Lisbon, Budapest, Graz). They are connected to the multimedia network via an ETHERNET card. The PCs are managed as intelligent terminals; in other words, a PC does not have its own identity but it is the user logging on via the PC who possesses an identity. This PC management method enables staff members to access the IS from any workstation and retrieve their own working environment. There are 3,000 telephones (for 4,000 lines), which are mostly digital telephones with a display screen and function keys. These provide easy access to PABX network services, such as caller display, call divert, three-way conferences, last call etc. The meeting rooms, technical premises and corridors are equipped with cheaper analogue telephones. The 400 printers are mostly devices for office use (low capacity, locally situated) and mostly of the laser type. Like the PCs, they are connected via an ETHERNET card (10/100 megabits/second). Medium-capacity (30 pages/minute) and high-capacity (100 pages/minute) printers are also available via the PRIDE application. Council of Europe staff have at their disposal fax machines, which are connected to the inhouse telecommunications network and also have access to the telephone network services. Office scanners have been installed. They are provided as a back-up service so that documents existing only in handwritten or printed version can be circulated in electronic form. Similarly, about CD-ROM recorders have been installed for local data back-up. Finally, laptop PCs are available. They are split into two groups: a pool of laptops for staff going on official journeys and a batch of laptops for use as workstations by certain staff who travel a great deal. 2 Specific infrastructures 2.1 PRIDE The concept underlying the PRIDE system (Production and Retrieval of Information and Documents through Electronics) is the rationalisation of document production and distribution and the creation of an electronic document collection accessible for all types of searches whether via Intranet, Extranet or Internet. Its main principles are: - print-on-demand and just-in-time production; - giving author departments responsibility for the content and form of their documents; - doing away with the circulation of hard-copy originals and the production request form between the author departments and the SPDP (Documents et Publications Production Department); 4

5 - use of a single reproduction method, namely electronic reproduction; - running a set of documentary databases with direct input from the author departments and accessible, depending on permissions, both inhouse and from outside the Council of Europe; - decentralised management of the Council of Europe's address database; - consultation via a one-stop search portal of all the documentary databases with the possibility of reusing the information located; - more closely targeted information searches through use of metadata; - system access for author departments using no more than an Internet browser. 2.2 Registry of the European Court of Human Rights CMIS CMIS is now being used by the Registry to run the Court's business process as regards the case-files. It offers staff modern and powerful environment providing a sophisticated, yet easy to use, case-file management database. This is coupled with a fully interactive document-management system and integrated with the Rightfax computerised fax software. The system enables users to produce management reports and statistics, and contains all the metadata and documents pertaining to a case. CMIS is also linked to over 2000 model letters to produce standard forms of correspondence to applicants, representatives and governments. 2.3 European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines 2.4 European Audiovisual Observatory 5